Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

During the adjournment debate on Monday this week, the member for Parramatta took it upon herself to champion the Tasmanian Forests Agreement. Perpetuating a myth is no substitute for fact. To correct the record, firstly, the Tasmanian forestry industry does not have FSC certification. Only Norske Skog and SFM Forest Products have this for plantation timber, along with Mr Peter Downie for his private native forests. Gunns Ltd has FSC controlled wood status for plantation wood being developed and delivered to woodchip mills at Bell Bay and Burnie. This relies on wood delivered having a valid forest practices plan and AFS certification.

Next, there is no requirement for certification for exporting. Some customers do demand FSC, others either FSC or AFS, and naturally, the majority of customers demand the wood come from legal sources. This is what happens in a free market. Finally, Ta Ann has no FSC wood coming into its mills in Tasmania. The majority of its wood supply comes from native forests managed by Forestry Tasmania. FT has AFS certification and is working towards full FSC certification as part of the dictated outcomes of the Tasmanian Forests Agreement.

Let us be clear: having certification does not makes Australia's forests more sustainable. Tasmanians have a right to be sceptical when a Sydney based member suggests she knows what is best for the state of Tasmania—my state—and the electorate of Lyons, my electorate. Alarm bells should start ringing when the same member makes a series of inaccurate statements to the House, espousing how Tasmanians should manage their natural resources.

A key reason I stand here today is that the 7 September election was a referendum on the future of forestry in my home state. Sitting around the negotiation table for the development of the TFA were hand-picked representatives from big business, big unions and big environment. The broader forest industry was never represented. The private forest growers were never represented, let alone the scores of small communities and businesses that were dependent on the most renewable of resources. TFA negotiations were purely a political stunt to appease the Greens and allow state and federal Labor governments to abrogate their responsibility. Industry did sit at the table, but negotiated with a gun to their head. As people around the state know, these ENGOs were systematically sabotaging companies legally carrying out their day-to-day business, and finally the industry capitulated.

The TFA process was born out of a commercial decision by Gunns Ltd to exit native forest. It was meant to deliver ENGO support for a pulp mill using only plantation feedstock, and see the Triabunna woodchip mill in my electorate reopen. We got neither. Labor have shown they do not have the capacity to achieve good outcomes on forestry. Their mates, the Greens, have shown that enough will never be enough.

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