Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Rice may have noticed that only last week, at the COP conference, Australia joined 25 other nations in signing up to the Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership. That is another demonstration of our determination to ensure that forestry is conducted in an environmentally sustainable manner. That is the intent of the RFAs; that is the intent of the policies that we pursued.

If particular forestry operations don't do the right thing, they will suffer the consequences of that. That's what we've seen as a result of some of that litigation at the moment. But we are not going to stray beyond our responsibilities in the forestry space. These are joint exercises between the federal and state government. Look at our election commitments. Look at our budget, which delivered over $200 million towards forestry—in particular, plantation timber—while also making sure that we're providing workers with training and increasing the efficiency of native forestry.