PM to help in renewal of Tas timber

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the federal government will work constructively with the new Tasmanian Liberal government to achieve a "renaissance" in the state's timber industry.

Mr Abbott said the Commonwealth wanted 74,000 hectares taken out of the Tasmanian World Heritage listing on the grounds that it comprised degraded, logged or plantation timber.

"We just don't see the sense in trying to lock up land which is either degraded, logged or plantation timber," he told reporters in Sydney.

"We want to see a renaissance of forestry in Tasmania.

"We will work very constructively with the new state government to try to make that happen," he said.

In her concession speech on Saturday night, outgoing Labor premier Lara Giddings urged Premier Will Hodgman not to tear up the Tasmanian forestry agreement signed in 2012 to end 30 years of conflict between conservationists and the timber industry.

Mr Abbott said a curious feature of the Labor-Green government in Tasmania was its relentless hostility to the forest industry.

"Timber is sustainable, renewable green resource and we should be making more and better use of timber, not trying to consign the timber industry of Tasmania and the timber industry of our country to our history," he said.