Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Senator Canavan. This week we saw the Turnbull government's attempt, via Deputy Prime Minister Joyce, to interfere in forest issues in Victoria and push for the release of more timber to the Heyfield mill. It is timber that simply is not there, because current native forest log supply volumes are commercially unviable, and Victorian government estimates show that the rate of logging that the mill is requesting would mean that the forest could be logged out in just a few years. Given that there is no long-term future in native forest logging, when will this government stop presiding over the inevitable collapse in jobs and in the critically endangered mountain ash ecosystem and actually plan for a transition to long-term security through sustainable plantations for Australia's timber and wood fibre needs?