Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to speak to this motion, I do want to acknowledge the member for Gippsland and how steadfast he is on this issue. He has been an advocate around forestry for the time he has been in this parliament—possibly, before. I would have to say that, in my experience, the only person I know who can match him for his fierce advocacy would be Michael O'Connor from the CFMMEU Manufacturing Division, who, like the member for Gippsland, does not make a secret of his position on native timber and the forestry industry, in representing his members in the way that he does.

But the good news is that the Albanese government does support forestry timber and a sustainable forestry industry, as previous speakers on this side have mentioned. In my own electorate of Bendigo, we were successful in a previous round of grants that the minister for this area, Minister Murray Watt, announced, for a great local project, that I hope will seed future work. It is our First Nations Dja Dja Wurrung people's corporation that received a grant to establish a local program where they will work on harvesting local timber through cultural thinning, for two reasons: for better bushfire management in our state parks and forests, but also to contribute towards a sustainable timber industry, for their organisation to create jobs for their First Nations people. I'm not suggesting that this is in any way to replace what has been lost by changes in the Victorian landscape, but it's a demonstration that, when we work with First Nations communities, where appropriate, where we can have cultural thinning or cultural harvesting, we can achieve a win-win all around.

When it comes to our native forests and our native timber industry, there's a lot of work and a lot of lessons that we can learn from First Nations people. It's not as simple as some greenies would suggest—'Just lock it up and walk away.' That doesn't restore country—particularly in an area like mine, where we lost so much of our forest to the gold rush. What we have seen in my area, with a lot of our state parks, is the toothpick effect, where we have too many ironbarks trying to compete, and our First Nations community are quite right in saying: 'We have to thin; we actually have to take out a huge chunk of the trees that are there, because there is too much competition.' It's also not restoring the land to the way it was, and that's what the ultimate goal is.

There are other efforts that we are taking as a government. Our forestry industry, as we know, generates 51,000 jobs directly, and forest and timber wood products generated $26.6 billion in 2021-22. In 2020-21, the Australian softwood and hardwood plantation estates produced 87 per cent by volume of the logs harvested, and the remaining 13 per cent were native forest.

The Albanese government is delivering on what the Morrison government failed to do. I do want to make this point. I can remember the big, grand speeches about a billion trees to be planted and new plantations by 2030. That was what the promise was, and that was what would help get us through our timber crisis. But only one per cent of those have actually been planted. The previous government needs to take responsibility for some of the crisis that we're in. They didn't work with First Nations people to be able to be the advocates of where it is appropriate and necessary for there to be cultural thinning, as in the example I used earlier.

Our government is working to deliver for the forestry industry in Australia. This includes $300 million in measures to support the forest industry sector. I raised one of the examples of how they're delivering in that space in my electorate, but this is a complicated policy area, because it isn't just federal government responsibility. There is the crossover with states and territories. It is a space where there is a lot of interest.

In my closing remarks I say we should listen to First Nations people on native forests, particularly on the issue of cultural thinning. (Time expired)

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