Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to agree with the government. I'm not going to support this bill, the Ending Native Forest Logging Bill 2023, and the Nationals will not support this bill on behalf of the thousands of timber workers across Australia whose economic viability this bill will rip out from underneath.

There are more than 9,000 employees across New South Wales alone who work in the timber industry. These are people who are already fearful of what the state Labor government may do to their future economic viability, even though Timber NSW has produced a report by Ernst & Young that shows that any plans to transition native forestry to plantations are both unnecessary and unworkable. It says that science based forest policies can achieve environmental aims while safeguarding local timber supply and local jobs—and science based policy is one of the things that RFAs do.

I also want to highlight, for the benefit of those listening, the absolute and utter hypocrisy of the Greens in presenting this bill. The Greens are quite happy to see rangelands and grasslands covered in glass and silicon for solar farms. They're quite happy for sections of native forests and national parks to have swathes cut through them so that we can erect transmission lines to connect renewables in far distant locations to where they're actually used—in the cities, which are concrete jungles. Maybe we should set up a concrete forestry industry! The other hypocrisy in this, though, is that demand for timber products is growing. We know timber products are true carbon sequestration. The tree absorbs carbon as it grows. Once it's harvested, as it's turned into a table or a chair or used for housing and construction, that is that carbon locked up forever.

Australia has sustainable practices. Gone are the days when wholesale land clearing was the practice of the forestry industry. But, instead of supporting our sustainable industries and encouraging our sustainable industries to continue to improve their practices, the Greens want to export our problems. They do this time and time again. They want to tell us, 'We can't grow rice, so we'll buy it from other countries that have less sustainable practices.' They want to tell us, 'We can't have other industries; we'll just import it.' That's what will happen; we'll ban native forestry and we will import hardwood from countries that we know have unsustainable practices—countries whose orangutans are at risk of extinction because of logging. But it's okay; we'll buy their wood and we'll shut down our sustainable practices just so that they can say that they've done the right thing by their ideals. We've got to stop this hypocrisy. We've got to back our industries and we've got to make sure our industries continue to grow and evolve and become more sustainable each and every day.

We will not be supporting this bill. We will be supporting all of our foresters, loggers and sawmillers across Australia—and I, in particular, will be supporting those across New South Wales. I've had meetings with the northern New South Wales timber industry, and I want them to know that I back them. I support them and I support their industry. Keep up the good work.