Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It is a question that is asking for something which has not been done, and therefore it is, in one sense, a hypothetical question because, of course, the facts are not on the table. The government indicated quite clearly yesterday that we had not provided any assistance to Gunns. That position has not changed.

The government can say that it is committed to assisting the Tasmanian community to respond to the challenges facing the forest industry. As the Prime Minister acknowledged in December 2010, the signing of the statement of principles is a credit to those involved—that after decades of disagreement they have been able to start the process of working together to work through the complex problems and to forge a new consensus around the forest industry in Tasmania.

That statement of principles, of course, started with community and industry groups coming together. The Australian government, as I indicated yesterday, has appointed Mr Bill Kelty as independent facilitator to work with the parties to the statement of principles to develop a final agreement. We are not at that final agreement stage and the implementation plan that may go around it at this time.

Many of the questions that I know Senator Brown may wish to ask are not on the table at this point. What I cannot rule in or out is what the government may or may not do into the future. That is the hypothetical part of the question that I cannot answer. I can certainly take it on notice to see what further and better particulars I can find that may go to the issue. But the government continues those discussions and I welcome the signatories to the forest Tasmania agreement to continue working towards finalising an agreement— (Time expired)