Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Faulkner interjects. The man who advised Mr Latham ought to keep his mouth shut.

In New South Wales, with virtually all of the timber resource on public land locked up, the Labor government has now moved to do the same to forests on private land. I remind the Senate that for every hectare of resource locked up in Australia there will be increased demand for timber resource from the Amazon and from other tropical hardwood forests around the world. Harvesting our natural resources is all about balance. Balance is a term that those over on the other side never understand. But balance is something that the Howard government understand, as we showed with the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, so overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of Tasmania and the rest of Australia. There is also balance in our marine protected areas. I urge New South Wales Labor to follow our lead in restoring balance to the timber industry in that state. (Time expired)