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. Will the minister outline how the Howard government’s balanced approach to forestry and conservation is protecting jobs and the environment, including in offsetting carbon dioxide emissions? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

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

I thank Senator Heffernan for his question. What has characterised the Howard government’s policies is balance—balanced, considered policies which deliver sensible and practical outcomes. For example, as a result of the Howard government’s balanced policies over the past 10 years, there are now some extra 10 million hectares of forest reserves in this country. In Tasmania, as a result of the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, over one million hectares of old-growth forest is protected forever. That is 45 per cent of Tasmania’s forests and 42 per cent of Tasmania’s landmass. The UN benchmark is only 10 per cent. At the same time we have supported jobs in the legitimate and sustainable harvesting of our forests to provide an essential and environmentally friendly resource—namely, timber. It is a resource that does not emit carbon dioxide when it is manufactured but which actually sucks it in and stores it. Yes, old-growth forests do store carbon, but eventually they do become saturated and can take in no more. But the products forests provide store the carbon dioxide even after the trees are harvested and then the forests are replanted and the regrowth sucks in—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. The minister knows that his statement that eventually old-growth forests cannot—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! What is your point of order, Senator?

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is knowingly misleading the Senate over old-growth forests and their ability to take in greenhouse gases. He is wrong.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. Resume your seat.

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

Mr President, it might be a new year, but it does not get better, does it? I was also asked about alternative policies. The problem is that Labor’s environment spokesman, Mr Garrett, wants to shut down the Tasmanian timber industry. He said in the Australian only 14 days or so ago, on 13 January:

The principles that will guide Labor’s forest policies are further protection ...

This sounded very familiar, so I checked my records, because I had a faint feeling of a ‘guess who said it’ coming on. Guess who had previously used those exact same words? None other than—they have guessed it; that is why they have gone silent over there—Mr Latham. This was Mr Latham’s 2004 Tasmanian forest policy, which Mr Beazley sensibly dumped but which has now been regurgitated and resurrected under Mr Rudd’s leadership by the new environment spokesman for Labor.

Under Messrs Rudd and Garrett an incoming Labor government would in fact be implementing the Latham-Brown forest policy—a policy which was willing to sacrifice workers and jobs in the name of the green mantra, a policy which also ignored the undisputed greenhouse benefits to the environment. The workers and those genuinely interested in the environment know that the Howard government’s policies of balance and being practical and sensible are the future for this country, and I encourage those on the other side who profess to support the timber industry to have a very close look at the policy direction of their party, which has now unfortunately gone into a degree of recidivism under Mr Latham’s star recruit, Mr Garrett. Make no mistake: Labor’s star recruit at the last election was Mr Garrett. He was recruited by Mr Latham and he has now been placed in that important position of the environment. Those policies would spell death for the timber industry. (Time expired)