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

Mr President, it might be a new year, but it does not get better, does it? I was also asked about alternative policies. The problem is that Labor’s environment spokesman, Mr Garrett, wants to shut down the Tasmanian timber industry. He said in the Australian only 14 days or so ago, on 13 January:

The principles that will guide Labor’s forest policies are further protection ...

This sounded very familiar, so I checked my records, because I had a faint feeling of a ‘guess who said it’ coming on. Guess who had previously used those exact same words? None other than—they have guessed it; that is why they have gone silent over there—Mr Latham. This was Mr Latham’s 2004 Tasmanian forest policy, which Mr Beazley sensibly dumped but which has now been regurgitated and resurrected under Mr Rudd’s leadership by the new environment spokesman for Labor.

Under Messrs Rudd and Garrett an incoming Labor government would in fact be implementing the Latham-Brown forest policy—a policy which was willing to sacrifice workers and jobs in the name of the green mantra, a policy which also ignored the undisputed greenhouse benefits to the environment. The workers and those genuinely interested in the environment know that the Howard government’s policies of balance and being practical and sensible are the future for this country, and I encourage those on the other side who profess to support the timber industry to have a very close look at the policy direction of their party, which has now unfortunately gone into a degree of recidivism under Mr Latham’s star recruit, Mr Garrett. Make no mistake: Labor’s star recruit at the last election was Mr Garrett. He was recruited by Mr Latham and he has now been placed in that important position of the environment. Those policies would spell death for the timber industry. (Time expired)