Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to bring the House's attention to the International Year of Forests because I believe that the forestry industry is one of the really great news stories for Australia. We have been through turmoil and fights with this industry, but now I believe the debate is maturing and, with that, a new industry is emerging that can be counted on as one of world's best practice and as being sustainable for centuries to come. Australia has about four per cent of the world's forests on five per cent of the world's land area. It has one of the best managed forestry sectors in the world.

The nation's forests and the products they produce provide significant employment, environmental and recreational benefits to communities across Australia. Australia's forestry and wood manufacturing sector employs nearly 76,000 people, many in regional areas, and generates about $7 billion worth of wood and paper products annually. Across the nation, forests in conservation areas cover 23 million hectares. These reserves provide recreational benefits for communities and contribute to the 12 billion tonnes of carbon stored by Australian forests. Industry and government have been working hard to make sure our forests remain sustainable and viable for the long term.

The Australian government recognises the importance of World Forestry Day and the International Year of Forests and has actively supported both initiatives. This year the Gillard government has released legislation to ban the importation of timber products that have not been legally harvested. This will contribute to global efforts to stop illegal logging, provide for sustainable forest products made in Australia and reduce unfair competition. The Gillard government remains committed to promoting sustainable forestry initiatives and encourages people to celebrate the International Year of Forests.

With just four per cent of the world's forests in Australia, most people would not recognise forest conservation as a daily issue in our wide brown land. But Australia has a variety of forest types. There are seven main groups that cover much of the coastal regions of the country. In order of abundance these are eucalypt, with 11 subtypes; acacia; melaleuca; rainforest; callitris; casuarina; and mangroves. Australia has the world's sixth largest forest area with a total of just over 147 million hectares, or around 21 per cent of the country's total land area. Most of Australia's forests are found in Queensland, with 52.8 million hectares of forest covering almost one-third of the state. Tasmania's forests, both native and plantation, cover 50 per cent of the state.

All our forests are home to unique native wildlife—animals as diverse as the cassowary in the rainforests of North Queensland and the tiny woylie in Western Australia's south-west. They all rely on a healthy forest for survival, whether it be an old-growth forest that has seen no development, harvesting or agricultural clearing or a newly regenerated forest. All forests in Australia play an important part in the natural ecosystem.

Forests throughout Australia can be threatened by both man-made and natural processes. Fire, drought and flood are all natural phenomena and can be both friend and foe to the forests of Australia. Many eucalypt species are adapted to fire, and the river red gums of Victoria's newest state forests are adapted to the flooding waters that can reach halfway up their trunks.

It is important to recognise the role of forest management in the maintenance of our world-class forests. Without some managing authority to deal with fire, drought, flood, human and animal impacts in our forests, as well as disease that in some cases can sweep through an area—just as it can among humans—we would not have such pristine forests as we have today. I salute the foresters and the forest workers, many of whom have worked in forests for generations, who, by their work and their understanding of the forest systems, have allowed us such an outcome as we have today.

The future will be just as important. The forests will play an important part in recycling carbon by storing it in wood and releasing oxygen as a by-product. This has played and will play a very important part in keeping the world's atmosphere in balance and preventing those excesses on either side—warming and cooling.

It is going to be an exciting time as new ideas become reality and researchers find innovative ways to use the timber, the bark, the leaves and the sap of our trees. Most people see wood used in their homes for building structures, for furniture, for ornamental purposes and even for art. But few recognise the importance of wood products for making paper to label all our goods, for packaging and for artists, newspapers, books, posters and prints. There are the medical uses of our trees—eucalypt oil and other tinctures that have been distilled from parts of leaves or the sap. And there has been innovation in the use of timber itself. It is now viable to use the small pieces of timber being milled. Engineered timber with certain types of glue can make beams that are even stronger than steel.

There is also the pure delight of wandering through a forest and enjoying the smell and the feel of the earth as the atmosphere renews itself through the trees. I had the opportunity of taking the House committee to some of my favourite spots in working forests during the hearing in Tasmania last week. We were all hugely impressed by the work that is quietly going on in keeping our Tasmanian forests well looked after. It was awe inspiring. Some of the walks and lookouts would not have been created had there not been a forest manager to ensure access to the forests. Whether they are in a public forest or in a private forest, whether they are on a farmland or on the fringes of urban areas, trees work well with humans if we are not silly about their powers. There are also opportunities for many new products coming from trees into the future, including being able to utilise rotary peeled veneers, being able to glue trees back together after we have peeled them off, to make even stronger products than in the past. This can work very well in regional areas and there are great opportunities for that. Laminated veneer lumber is also becoming a reality throughout the world, especially in New Zealand and now in Australia. Being able to join small pieces of timber together and making it economically viable for that product to reach the standards for the building codes give us a great opportunity by allowing the use of a lot more wood. The future is certainly going to be about less native forest timber being available for processing but more plantation timber. We will need to identify more efficient ways of supplying customers. We will also need to know what people want in wood products in the future and about the changing demands. Consumers are certainly favouring strength and versatility of engineered wood products over traditional sawn timbers. There need to be opportunities to take wood to the biodiesel stage, and the opportunities into the future are growing wonderfully well.

This is a wonderful industry. It employs a lot of great Tasmanians, great Australians, and people throughout the world. It can help alleviate poverty throughout the world, and we do need to make timber products from trees, but there has to be a process that is sustainable to allow us to achieve that. Before this year ends I suggest everybody goes out to their favourite piece of forest, talks to the workers who use it, asks them their stories, hears about their pride in their areas and just thinks about their forests in this International Year of Forests.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me considerable pleasure to support this motion by the member for Lyons. Whilst I may not agree with all his political choices I do have great respect for his integrity and decency. Having said that, I want to look at the first part of this motion, and that is in relation to the international sustainability and protection of the great rainforests, the threat to those forests and the opportunity for cooperative international action not just to protect these forests but to make a rapid, real reduction in global greenhouse emissions in the shortest possible time and in the largest possible way at the lowest possible cost.

Let me begin with this proposition: on the best advice, of the world's over 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide or related gases released each year, almost 20 per cent of that comes from the destruction of rainforests and other forests. This is a huge signature, a huge footprint, an enormous release of greenhouse gases, be it CO2, methane or other emissions which have an impact on the greenhouse process. It is also an extraordinary testimony to significant, widespread destruction of the great forests of the world and in particular the great rainforests of the world. So the task, the duty, the responsibility is to try to create a system which allows for sustainable management of these great rainforests, which protects the magnificent biodiversity and which protects in particular many of the indigenous communities throughout the equatorial regions of the world—whether in Africa, in Asia, in the Pacific or in Latin America—who have suffered and are suffering the loss of their environment as well as their livelihood. The background is that the pressures are real for land, for the growth of crops, for the supply of foodstuffs and in many cases for the supply of energy through sugar cane, which is being used for biodiesel equivalents in Brazil and parts of Latin America. As a consequence of this the rainforests in many parts of the world are being destroyed, degraded and damaged. That in turn is a loss of biodiversity, a loss of community and a release of CO2 or equivalent gases on a grand scale.

At the highest level our goal and our objective as an alternative government of Australia is to see that the world establishes a genuine global rainforest recovery program. In the next five years, we want to see the goal of a 50 per cent reduction in the approximately eight billion tonnes of annual CO2 or equivalent gases released from rainforest destruction. This is a real and achievable goal. It is significant, and nothing would do more at a faster rate on a grander scale to reduce the immediate global footprint than to protect the great forests of the world. That is a desirable, achievable, fundamental goal that can bring both the developed and the developing worlds together at a time when there is scant agreement internationally over the way to deal with this problem.

The specifics we would like to introduce in order to ensure that we build on the work that has been done, whether it is Brazil or Indonesia or other parts of the word, are threefold. First, we believe that the Australian government should co-host, preferably with Indonesia, an international summit on preserving the world's rainforests. In particular, my view and our view is that that summit could be held later this year before the next major United Nations climate summit in South Africa as it could be a way to ensure significant, real and genuine progress and provide the opportunity for something to come out of this summit on international climate change processes. It would be a fundamental step towards protecting the great rainforests and reducing emissions.

Second, the summit's goal would be to spearhead and coordinate efforts to protect and preserve the world's rainforests, from Brazil to PNG, and in particular to create a time frame and a mechanism to protect these forests. There are many forms of incentive payments to protect against destruction, on the basis of abatement, and could provide a way forward. This is the moment to seize the opportunity to protect these great rainforests.

Third, our commitment is very simple. If we can achieve an international agreement, whether it is on the current watch or our watch, if we are fortunate to be given that opportunity, we will work to ensure that there is support in both the developed world and in the developing world for such an agreement. Just look at the examples, whether it is in Costa Rica, or parts of Brazil, or in Indonesia or, in particular, in Mexico, where there have been stewardship agreements between the international community, which has been willing to provide resources, the host government and the local Indigenous community to protect and steward these forests. This is a model for the sort of approach that could take the world forward in terms of rapid reduction of emissions at a low cost of abatement on a large scale. Nothing the world can do will make a bigger, faster reduction in the global CO2 footprint.

Against that background I welcome this motion from the member for Lyons. I particularly note that the international opportunities for protection of the great rainforests are real, but it is the sad case that the work begun under the previous government has barely been taken forward under this government, in part, I fear, because it was an agenda of the Liberal-National coalition to drive forward great rainforest protection. I would offer the hand of friendship to the government and say, 'Please join us in this commitment to protecting the great rainforests.' The member for Lyons's motion is an important step in that direction, and I thank him for his work.

Domestically there is also a parallel here. Domestically our whole approach is based on voluntary and willing participation. That is why we have supported an incentives based scheme rather than a tax based scheme to reduce emissions, which, among other things, provides the opportunity to capture carbon in plantation forests, in soil and in revegetation through mallee and mulga. These are real opportunities for capturing carbon and reducing emissions—doing so at a low cost, on a grand scale, within Australia.

I simply turn to the work of the CSIRO's Sustainable Agriculture Flagship. The head of that flagship, Dr Michael Battaglia, prepared a very significant paper recently. That paper made it clear that it would be possible to reduce Australia's emissions by 20 per cent per annum over 40 years through the use of green carbon or the capture of carbon in natural ecosystems. That is an enormous opportunity. The CSIRO work of Dr Michael Battaglia, is more aggressive than the figures presented by the coalition in our direct action policy. We were conservative in our estimates. The CSIRO, which is itself a conservative scientific agency, has, however, made much more aggressive projections as to what is achievable with incentive payments. That is good news for Australia and it is good news for the emissions reduction possibilities. I commend the idea of an incentives scheme rather than a tax based scheme and commend the idea of a global rainforest recovery program. (Time expired)

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand with my colleague and friend the member for Lyons to recognise that 2011 is the International Year of Forests. Forestry is a fantastic industry that provides the world with renewable products, income and ecological services. The United Nations Forum on Forests reflects international trends in forest management, which increasingly acknowledges that previous policy objectives that were designed to restrict the use of native forest resources were misdirected and have led to perverse social, land use and economic outcomes. There is now an acceptance that sustainable forest management and utilisation policy must encompass all forest types and tenure and that native forests are part of an integrated solution to meeting national, social and economic development needs.

A number of environmental non-government organisations—ENGOs—are adopting a more pragmatic approach to the management and utilisation of native forests. For example, the World Wildlife Fund 'understands the threats facing forest today,' but trying to prohibit the use of forest resources is not a viable solution. The world is rediscovering, fortunately, the benefits of wood and wood products. Our eucalypts, with their high-strength rating, are an ideal source for engineered products. Research in Europe and North America is looking seriously at substituting tilt slab concrete walls with cross-laminated timber slab walls. Laminated timber is lighter and has the benefit of capturing a huge amount of CO2, unlike concrete, which in fact, emits CO2. Furthermore, in earthquake-prone areas, governments are recognising the benefits of timber buildings, including high-rise, which are less prone to collapse than those constructed of steel or concrete. In Europe and Japan eight- to 10-storey buildings are being made from timber. Indeed, in Melbourne, the Grollo family made headlines with its plans to build Australia's first high-rise building from timber.

These are examples of why forests should be recognised in this International Year of Forests. As such, worldwide demand for forest product is forecast to increase and Australia's proximity to the rapidly growing Asian economies provides an opportunity to expand growth and output. To fulfil growing demand, forest processes require expanding resources and long-term security and supply at suitable levels of quantity and quality, supporting investment decisions critical in maintaining competitiveness and developing new processing capacity. As we are currently seeing in my home state of Tasmania, resource security is a major issue for the industry. Forest planning is an intergenerational activity.

Forest operations around the world have gone through dramatic changes over the past 20 years and have adapted and responded positively to change, and my state of Tasmania is no exception. Gone are the days when forestry was considered to be a career for males with a high level of physical fitness and a low level of skills who were content to work in dangerous situations. Many modern jobs involve operating computer controlled forest harvesting and mill processing equipment which requires highly skilled personnel. The 21st-century forest industry is a safe, modern, capital-intensive, state-of-the-art and high-tech industry that continues to provide rewarding career activities.

The industry is not standing still. As well as technology and research, private, native and plantation forest resources are becoming increasingly critical to supply models But managed forests still provide the most cost effective and environmentally sustainable approach to forest management and addressing the challenges associated with issues such as climate change. It is clear that appropriate, supportive and consistent government policies will be required if the full potential of the Australian and, particularly, the Tasmanian forest industry is to be realised and, in doing so, maximise its contribution to local and regional communities.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in 2008-09, Australian forests produced 25 million cubic metres of logs, which had a forest roadside value of $1.7 billion or an average price of $68 per cubic metre. After processing, the value of this resource averaged $920 per cubic metre, an increase of over 1,320 per cent. The industry is collectively Australia's second-largest manufacturing industry and contributes around 0.7 per cent to Australia's gross domestic product and 5.8 per cent of manufacturing output. The forest industry is a critical regional employer, with 76,800 people directly employed across supply and value chains.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion but in particular would like to talk about an issue which I think is underutilised and an area where we need to do a lot more policy work and see some serious policy change: family farm forestry. Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Yan Yan Gurt Creek catchment area and the property of Andrew Stewart. There I met with members of the Colac Otway Landcare group. Since 1993, they have set up the Otway Agroforestry Network. It is local farmers and government working with Landcare to look at ways to increase the productivity of farms through the use of agroforestry.

What we are seeing is quite remarkable. The results suggest that family farm forestry can not only make a significant contribution to future timber supply but may also ensure commercial tree growing has local community support, underpins sustainable agriculture production and delivers real environmental benefits. I would like to thank Andrew Stewart for hosting my visit last Monday. I would also like to thank Rowan Reed from Bambra. Rowan is a former professor of forestry at the University of Melbourne and has now set up a farm where he showcases what forestry can do to improve family farming. The results are quite remarkable. I view it as a serious way forward. I have also had the pleasure early late last year of visiting Melville Forest at Andrew and Kim Dufty's house, where I also met with their parents, Margaret and Stuart Dufty. They produce carbon-neutral wool on the property by putting about 10 to 15 per cent of their farm to forestry and to plantations. They also use shelter belts, through the use of which they are able to increase livestock production and also get cropping production up. This is a way forward.

The problem we have at the moment is that we are not providing the incentives for farmers to look at forestry. The only incentive we have at the moment is for large-scale plantations through managed investment schemes. I will take this opportunity to once again call for this type of subsidy to plantation timber to stop. It distorts landscapes; it has turned out to be an absolute Ponzi scheme and has delivered no net result for local communities. We need to look at ways we can empower and provide incentives for our farmers to use their land and agroforestry to not only increase their food production but also increase timber production. There is a smart way we can deal with this issue and it is not through MIS. We have seen farmers have their subsidies reduced. We have seen the wool floor scheme taken away from farmers and the single-desk scheme from the wheat growers. We have seen subsidies removed from the farming sector and it is high time we remove them now from the timber plantation sector so that we can once again see farmers working, without having to compete with forestry, to improve their lands to continue to increase their food production and crop production and go a long way to trying to feed the globe. As we all know the increase in food demand is going to double in the next 30 to 40 years, and if we are smart about how we use forestry and food together we can deal with that problem.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I note that you saw fit to visit the wonderful Shortland electorate at the weekend. I was sorry that I did not catch up with you. I would like to congratulate the member for Lyons for bringing this very important motion to parliament. I know it is an issue that he is absolutely passionate about. As members of parliament we should all be passionate about the issue of forests and their sustainability, celebrating this International Year of Forests.

Forests are a valuable global resource that act as the lungs of our planet and as such we must do everything in our power to ensure their sustainability. It is very appropriate that this parliament recognises 2011 as the International Year of Forests. The general assembly passed resolution 61/193 to set up this year as International Year of Forests. Part of that resolution called for:

Recognizing that forests and sustainable forest management can contribute significantly to sustainable development, poverty eradication and the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals …

It is Millennium Development Goal number 7 that really captures this issue of ensuring environmental sustainability. Target A says sustainable development should be used to reverse loss of environmental resources and, target B, reduction in the loss of biodiversity. I do not think you can just look at one Millennium Development Goal on its own. You need to link it in to the other Millennium Development Goals, such as those on poverty, health, and child and maternal health. All those goals come together, and this is a very important part of them. The overharvesting of forests and the illegal use of forest products cannot be separated from the poverty that exists worldwide. As such, I think it is very important to remember the connection that is being made in this International Year of Forests with Millennium Development Goals.

In Australia, forests and forest issues have always been very important. I am sure that other members have been contacted through widespread email campaigns in recent times about the historic agreement reached in Tasmania between logging industries and environmental groups. I think we should do everything in our power to see that we put in place sustainable forestry plans and that all groups work together. The Gillard government has taken some very positive steps in relation to forests. One of them, which I think links very nicely to the Millennium Development Goals, is the ban on the import of illegal forestry products. Taking away the market for these products ensures—or works towards—preventing those forests from being harvested in an illegal fashion.

There are no forests in the Shortland electorate. It is a coastal electorate, as you, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker Murphy, would know. It is an electorate in which the people are most concerned about ensuring the sustainability of forests, not only in our country but worldwide. There is nothing I find more enjoyable than spending time in a magnificent forest with those majestic trees. It links you into feeling how everything in our environment comes together. I think we should do everything in our power to ensure that forests are protected.

The other issue that has been raised by a number of speakers is the role forests play in the reduction of carbon in our atmosphere. (Time expired)

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year marks the year of the forests. Forests are an integral part of human and animal survival. Through the management and sustainability of forests in the past few years there has been a great rebirth of endangered species. The theme 'Forests for People' celebrates the central role of people in the sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of the world's forests. The theme revolves around the multiple values of forests and the need for a 360-degree perspective. Forests provide shelter to people and habitat to biodiversity. They are a source of food, medicine and clean water and play a vital role in maintaining a stable global climate and environment. All these elements taken together reinforce the message that forests are vital to the survival and wellbeing of people everywhere. Forests provide welfare for living. They also provide welfare for survival.

Tumbarumba is in my electorate of the Riverina. Its major industry is softwood timber processing at the Hyne and Son timber mill, which is also the town's biggest employer. The Tumbarumba mill has been in operation since the 1970s, during which time it has undergone a number of upgrades to increase capacity and to take advantage of advances in technology. In 2001 Hyne and Son took over from Boral Limited and successfully upgraded in 2003-04 with the latest North American equipment and technology to ultimately process 900,000 cubic metres of radiata sawlogs per annum. Since the revamp, Tumbarumba's timber industry has thrived, with Hyne and Son employing more than 250 people within the Tumbarumba area. Since the rebuild, which cost approximately $120 million, the mill is the largest softwood processing mill in the Southern Hemisphere, and we are very proud of that in the Riverina. Hyne Timber is a privately owned timber-processing organisation where, as I say, more than 250 people are employed in management, administration and a broad range of activities required in the processing of timber—and that is not to mention the indirect jobs of truck drivers and in all sorts of other industries and occupations within the area.

Hyne Timber does a lot for the community of Tumbarumba. As well as being the largest employer, it provides a huge amount of support for the area. In 2004 the Hyne Community Trust Foundation in Tumbarumba was established for the community, and every second year, with the help of Tumbarumba Rotary, Hyne Timber sends a select group from the local year 11 and 12 high school to participate in the Kokoda trek. Hyne Timber is also a major sponsor for community events in and around the area, such as the Tumbafest and the Carcoola childcare art show.

We heard this morning from the shadow minister for climate action, environment and heritage, the member for Flinders, arguing that there is a better way to preserve forests as well as to protect the environment and to have a sustainable future. A global rainforest recovery program is possible, feasible and, under a coalition in government, would be a very real and positive policy. Forestry is not a dirty word. It worries me that a green legacy that we all want and need could go too far, especially with today's change in the Senate, leaving a black mark on sustainable forestry, an ecologically responsible future and the wellbeing of communities.

As New South Wales Premier, Bob Carr purchased Yanga Station near Balranald for $35 million and turned it into national park, promising a tourism bonanza. Mr Carr pressured Premier Nathan Rees to declare Riverina red gum forests as national parks even before the Rees-commissioned Natural Resources Commission report was completed. In an email campaign with activist organisation GetUp!, Mr Carr said more jobs would be created in the new national parks than lost from the timber industry—and we all know that that just has not transpired.

When Yanga Station was bought by the Carr government in 2005 and turned into a national park, communities were promised that the influx of 50,000 extra tourists would more than make up for jobs lost on the station and in the timber industry—and it is a whole load of rot. The same was said by the Rees government when the Riverina red gum forests were declared national parks in 2010. There was community scepticism that enough tourists would ever arrive to offset the closure of the timber industry, which just did not happen. Bob Carr made similar promises when he proclaimed a national park at Coolah, stating that 30,000 tourists a year would visit. Fifteen years later the major change at Coolah is the number of closed businesses.

Six years on from Yanga being turned into a national park and one year on from the Millewa Forest being declared as national park, all the evidence suggests that rural communities have once again been sold down the river with empty promises. (Time expired)

John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.