Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

As a general principle, the coalition is happy to support further actions to tighten and strengthen Australia's laws against the importation, sale and use of illegal timber. We're actually pleased that the government has continued the process that we put in place and started, to review and monitor the content, operation and effectiveness of the relevant laws and regulations in this policy area on a number of occasions. More broadly, we're also very pleased that, when it came to the last election, the current government basically took a carbon copy of our policy and decided to implement it. They haven't implemented it in the way that we think, in the end, is proving all that effective. But, in this area, they did decide to match our $4.4 million commitment to strengthen Australia's fight against illegal logging and stop illegal timber imports from undercutting Australian producers. In relation to the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill specifically we're also pleased that Labor has continued the considerable work that we started when we were in government in respect of reviewing the sun setting of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012.

We all need to make sure that we get the balance right, in this area. We have to make sure that we understand we place regulatory burdens upon our industry, upon the people who import timber, and, sadly, we've seen the need to import more and more timber, given that state governments are shutting down native forest logging, versus the need and desire to make sure we are not seeing the exploitation by illegal loggers of forests overseas. This is where in Australia, sadly, we aren't getting the balance right. By shutting down more and more of our native timber industries, what we are doing is putting more and more pressure on us as a nation to have to import timber, and that brings with it real consequences, including supply constraints. What we're seeing now is housing builds at their lowest level in well over a decade, and that's what happens when you do not manage things properly.

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