Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Growing up in Mount Gambier I had an innate sense of how important the forest industry was to not only my local community but the nation as a whole. The forest industry contributes a whopping $22.2 billion of economic activity each year to the Australian economy and employs more than 64,000 Australians in the forest, logging and processing sectors. Nationally, the green triangle forms an important part of that industrial effort, but at a local level, to communities in the south-east of South Australia, the industry plays a seminal role in supporting economic activity and jobs. Indeed, it's estimated that the local timber-processing industry in Mount Gambier alone employs more than 1,500 people directly and many more indirectly. This equates to around 10 per cent of the total employment of the town. The economic contribution that this industry made in the 2016-17 financial year in that same community was around $198 million in gross regional product, which in itself represents around 12 per cent.

To be quite frank, this is not an industry we can afford to ignore nationally or locally. Its importance cannot be overstated, particularly in my home town of Mount Gambier. Nationally, Australia is the seventh most-forested nation, but, sadly, we import much more processed timber than we export. Indeed, Australia has a trade deficit in wood products of more than $2 billion. The processing industry in forestry regions, like those in Barker, enjoys strong prospects for growth, but its growth is currently limited by the lack of access to domestic log supply—not because we don't have access to that resource but because we are exporting that resource in the form of raw logs directly to overseas processors. Last year in the green triangle alone we exported more than 1.7 million cubic tonnes, which equates to close to 50 per cent of our exports nationally.

Those opposite and, indeed, some commenters have opined that manufacturing in this country is dead. That's simply untrue. Manufacturing is thriving, as burgeoning Asian markets want more and more of our quality food and fibre. Australian processed timber, like Australian manufactured foods, is in strong demand. Local processors tell me that they are constantly fielding requests for more export product. That would mean more Aussie jobs. We need to develop a strategy to ensure that this industry, one which enjoys bullish prospects, particularly in what looks increasingly like a carbon-constrained future, is not only sustained but afforded the ability to grow.

The recent budget included $20 million for the National Forest Industries Plan. It's an important step—one that signifies this government's willingness to see and support this industry and its continued success. The National Forest Industries Plan is a sign of this government's support for the jobs that that industry supports and the economic contribution it makes to communities just like those in the south-east of South Australia. But we need to do more to take the handbrake off the timber-processing industry.

In addition to advocating for the National Forest Industries Plan to include measures to expand our forestry estates, the industry needs urgent measures to increase the access our domestic log processors have to the domestic log supply—in short, Aussie logs for Aussie timber mills. Without this, not only will Australian sawmills be unable to expand and thereby employ more Australians but the jobs of those already in the sector will be in jeopardy. As I advocate in this space, I ask colleagues to remember that in a land as vast as ours, with some of the world's best forestry plantations, we import $2 billion more in wood products than we export. We can do better than this. We need to do better than this.