Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Further to that, can the minister advise where that figure of $400 million comes from? If the global trade in illegal logging is worth $60 billion, is that $400 million a ballpark figure? Does the government consider it could be greater than that? Let us assume that it is $400 million: if there is a framework, as the minister has outlined, to minimise the risk of illegally logged timber coming to Australia, can the minister advise what the government says would be the likely outcome of this bill? What is intended to be the policy outcome? Is it going to be $50 million or $100 million in three or four years' time? Will it be a more gradual process than that? That is quite important.

I should also say at this stage that earlier today I made reference to Clare Rewcastle Brown, who has been very active with Radio Free Sarawak, who has been outspoken on illegal logging, who cannot get back into the country of her birth, Malaysia, because of the matters she has raised both in her blog and on her program. I made references to publicly available information such as found in Wikipedia, but I should also point out that I have had conversations with Clare Rewcastle Brown earlier this year that I found very enlightening in terms of the work she does.

Going back to that figure of $400 million, does the government concede it could be greater than that? But assuming it is $400 million, what does the government hope the effect of this bill will be in approximate dollar terms in reducing the level of illegal logging coming into the country?