David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Nicholls for his question. He, like the member for Gippsland, in particular, and many regional Victorian members of parliament, has been appalled by the sudden cancellation and destruction of the native forest industry in Victoria. It was done, with the stroke of a pen, without any proper consultation with industry or the community. This is one of the most sustainably managed resources in the country. In fact, only four in every 10,000 trees in native forests in Victoria are harvested, and every one of those are replaced. They are replaced. It's also an important aspect to our fire mitigation work in Victoria, in keeping Victorians safe, making sure they're protected during fire season.

What's more important are the 2½ thousand direct jobs that are going to be wiped out. That's on top of the thousands of jobs indirectly in the hardwood industry—basically, gone. The blue-collar workforce of regional Australia will be gone, decimated in one fell swoop. It also means that, effectively, we may be forced to import hardwood timber that isn't managed in the sustainable way that we in Australia can be proud of, that our native forests have been able to undertake, in a mature and sensible way.

The Victorian government have come up with a solution. Their solution—and we've some admiration—is to plant 50,000 hectares of plantation timber over the next 10 years. Unfortunately, the math doesn't add up, because they're saying we'll transition these jobs out of the native into the plantation. It takes 20 to30 years plus for those trees to mature to a harvestable product. So those jobs are gone. There is no transition. That is a cruel hoax. It is a lie. It is a lie to those people who are hardworking, who are blue-collar workers.

I have to say, while I don't always agree with the member for Hunter, he has, in all honesty, shown the courage of conviction you would expect on this. And recently, at the Australian Forest Products Association dinner, he called out the fallacy of Premier Andrews' claim that the hardwood timber industry in Victoria can transition to plantation by 2030. Australia cannot sustain a forest and forest products industry, and all the jobs and wealth it creates, without a native forest industry. That is the truth. That is what you would expect from someone who's meant to stand up for blue-collar workers—with the coalition members here who are going to stand shoulder to shoulder with those men and women, those communities, that will be destroyed.

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