Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator, for that question. I was, indeed, last week, in Weipa—up your way, in Far North Queensland—to view nothing less than a remarkable new Indigenous tropical hardwood harvesting project. Rio's new Amrun bauxite operation, south of Weipa, is clearing about 1,500 hectares of forest a year. I know the Greens will be very interested to know this. This would have been cleared anyway. It's in front of a bauxite mine. But Indigenous entrepreneur Gina Castelain saw that the timber would have otherwise gone to waste, so Wik Timber negotiated a partnership with Rio to harvest the timber and produce 125,000 tonnes of timber for export and domestic markets. New businesses are employing 70 local Indigenous jobseekers. Through the IEF, we assisted Wik Timber to purchase a shovel logger, a log skidder and a wood chipper so they can harvest the timber that would otherwise have gone up in smoke. We've also had 22 Queensland Indigenous businesses— (Time expired)