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

I thank Senator Watson for his question, and I note his longstanding support for value-adding in the Tasmanian timber industry. Australia currently has an annual trade deficit in timber and timber products of some $2 billion. We export woodchips and we import paper; we export whole logs and we import sawn logs; we export sawn logs and we import furniture. In short, we need to value-add more of our timber product—and that is exactly what the Howard government is about, as shown by our $56 million package to assist the Tasmanian timber industry in more value-adding. That is also why the Howard government is so strongly supportive of establishing a world’s best practice pulp mill in Tasmania—a mill which will not cause the harvesting of a single extra native forest tree, a mill which will merely process woodchips already destined for export.

This proposed mill is currently being reviewed by the Resource Planning and Development Commission, and I do not intend to prejudge the outcome. However, I have been asked about alternatives. The Labor Party is still ’twixt and ’tween the Martin Ferguson view of the world and the Anthony Albanese view of the world, and we will see how that plays out in due course. But, of course, we do have a view from the Australian Greens. They oppose any new pulp mill, as they have opposed every value-adding—