Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation, Senator Abetz. What threats does the mismanagement of Australia’s vast forest resource pose to life, property, biodiversity, the atmosphere and water supplies this summer?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Heffernan for his topical question, given the bushfires burning right around our nation at the moment. There is no doubt that mismanagement of our forests by state Labor governments, usually at the behest of the green movement, has vastly increased the threat which these bushfires pose each and every summer. Right now, literally dozens of fires are burning in New South Wales and Victoria, fires which highlight the mismanagement of our forest resource. Take, for example, the fire currently burning near Coonabarabran in New South Wales, burning in an area known as the Pilliga Nature Reserve. It is a fire which poses a real threat to life and property and which is emitting literally millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; a fire which, sadly, also appears to be decimating one of Australia’s most important koala communities, although I understand the latest news is that damage may be less than originally feared.

It is instructive that after decades of sustainable harvesting, following pressure from green groups, particularly the Wilderness Society, the Pilliga was recently locked up by the New South Wales Labor government—locked up, forgotten and now burnt along with its fauna. Sadly, this ‘lock up and forget’ mentality is not just confined to New South Wales. In the Victorian Alps, an area which Labor also recently locked up to conserve, there is now a more serious fire threat than the 2002-03 fire which burnt three million hectares and emitted 130 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These fires may even merge into a single megafire, which could not only threaten life and property but also again burn out the Thomson catchment, further compromising Victoria’s water supplies, which still suffer reduced inflows due to the 1939 bushfire regrowth.

Yesterday in this place we had a rather bizarre contribution—not unusual—from Senator Bob Brown, suggesting that stopping arsonists is the catch-all for reducing bushfires. While reducing arson is certainly important, it ignores the fact that the real answer to reducing bushfires and bushfire intensity is reduced fuel loads. I say to Senator Brown and the Greens: if you are serious about reducing the bushfire threat, stop advocating more forest lock-ups. Start advocating instead for sustainable timber harvesting, which reduces fuel loads, creates access tracks and firebreaks and, incidentally, takes far more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than the carbon dioxide neutral national parks advocated by Senator Brown.

Senator Brown’s advocacy of more money for research into arsonists is ironic, given that the green movement itself poses a significant bushfire hazard. In fact, it has been the extreme green policies that have made the evil activities of arsonists so much easier and so much more devastating.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.