Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

I am absolutely delighted to take the question from the Leader of the Australian Greens, because what the position of the Leader of the Australian Greens is putting is exactly the issue that the people of Tasmania will be deciding on 15 March: whether or not the Australian people get the opportunity for jobs with a renewable resource that is recyclable, reusable and at the end of the day genuinely renewable and, what is more, takes more carbon out of the atmosphere than it puts in. In other words, it is the only carbon-positive industry that Australia has. So we unashamedly indicate our support for the forestry sector.

In relation to national parks, I just remind those opposite—and in this regard I am speaking to both the Greens and the ALP—that, in cahoots with the state Labor/Greens government in Hobart, they made a submission to the World Heritage Committee to lock up pine forests as though they were pristine world heritage areas. They also argued for eucalypt plantations to be so locked up. They also argued that native forests on their third rotation of harvesting should be locked up because they were pristine forests. If that were to be the case, isn't it the biggest tick the forestry industry could ever get that on the third cycle of harvesting it is still seen as pristine world heritage forest? That is how well Tasmania does forestry and that is why it is right for Tasmania to fully harness the potential of the forestry industry in Tasmania and the jobs that it will provide right around the state of Tasmania, and especially in the electorate of Lyons. (Time expired)