Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I will take the interjection from Senator Shoebridge: 'Nobody likes seeing clear-felled coupes.' That is the basis upon which this bill is being moved—because it doesn't feel good. I'll tell you what: it is good for the environment. It is based on science. It creates jobs. What isn't good is bringing timber in for the same products that we buy today but, instead of getting it from sustainably managed, science based forestry operations in Australia, getting it from the Congo Basin or other places where they don't give a damn about the environment.

You know what? These forestry operations overseas have tinges of modern slavery attached to them. But apparently it's okay to shut down the forestry industry in Australia, okay to send the economic benefits of these jobs and that industry offshore, okay to offshore forestry operations to jurisdictions where they don't care about carbon emissions. I'll tell you what: as a signatory to the Glasgow declaration on halting deforestation by 2030, I'll guarantee you that none of those countries from which we will be drawing this material are signatories to that. They won't be replanting the trees that are ripped out of the ground as a result of what's happened in Victoria under the madness of the Andrews Labor government and what's happened in Western Australia under the madness of former premier McGowan's government—terrible policies that are not based on science, not based on fact, bad for the economy and bad for the environment. How anyone can stand in this place and say it is good for the environment to do what the Greens are proposing to do is beyond me.

Senator McKim calls it 'collusion'. I call it 'reality'. I call it 'based on science'. I call it 'based on fact'. I'm not going to abandon the people who work in this industry—honest, hardworking people—who rely on science, who back in what this industry does.

Honourable senators interjecting—

There are these silly, emotive questions being asked from the crazy corner of the Senate down there—the forest science deniers. 'Why do you hate gliders? Why do you hate swift parrots?' Apparently, they're mutually exclusive. There is no recognition in this bill, which they're seeking to refer off to this committee for inquiry, of what the industry has done to manage threatened species. It is based on emotion, not based on science, all for a Facebook clip. That's what this is about, and the Greens should hang their heads in shame as a result of this.