Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

The government's firm view is that we can have a sustainable forestry industry in this country. We can have a sustainable tourism industry in this country. We can have a sustainable manufacturing industry in this country. We can have lots of different things in this country and manage them sensibly so that we can have a diverse range of jobs for Australian people. That has been proven in many areas, and I think we do a much better job of managing our own environment and our own forests than do many countries around the world. We should be proud of that and, indeed, we should be using those principles and practices to supply the products and services we need. Australians are not going to consume less furniture or less wood. What they will do is bring them in from other countries that do not necessarily share our practice. So the Greens want to export all the problems to other parts of the world because they view that it is out of sight and out of mind and we do not have to deal with it. We prefer to do the hard job of sustainably dealing with these issues and protecting jobs at the same time.