Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

No, I do not agree with that hypothetical situation. Ultimately what we are trying to do here is deal with what is genuinely a waste product. There are a number of safeguards that are very clearly put in place here. I think the nature of the questioning and the hypothetical that is being put here is, as I said in the debate the other night, a demonstration that this debate around the use of native forest wood waste is generally used by the Greens—and sadly nowadays it seems by the Labor Party, who back-flipped on where they were a couple of years ago and had consistently been for a decade—as a proxy war over forest activities in general. The government thinks that safe, sustainable and well regulated forestry activities have a place. We also think that waste should be used in the best and most economic manner and that it is very appropriate in this case, with the safeguards that existed successfully for a decade, to encompass the reintroduction of native title wood waste. I do not intend to answer every possible hypothetical pricing scenario during the committee stage tonight.