Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation, Senator Eric Abetz. Will the minister update the Senate on how the government is protecting, supporting and conserving both jobs and the environment in Tasmania’s forests? 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 Barnett for his question and note his strong commitment, like all of us on this side, to ensuring a balance between jobs and the environment in Tasmania’s forests. On Friday the Prime Minister signed off on minor amendments to the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement which will ensure that this balance continues. The amendments, made in response to a recent Federal Court decision, clarify the policy intent of the RFA, which was signed in 1997 between the Prime Minister and the then Tasmanian Premier Tony Rundle.

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

He got it wrong!

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

Under this agreement, nearly one million hectares of old-growth forests are protected forever, and 45 per cent of Tasmania’s forests and 42 per cent of Tasmania’s total landmass are in reserves. The changes announced on Friday bring the agreement into line with the other nine regional forest agreements around the country. They confirm that, when combined with various management prescriptions, the massive Tasmanian reserve system protects Tasmania’s unique biodiversity and endangered species. I will be very clear. Not one extra tree will be cut down as a result of these amendments. Not a single animal will become extinct because of these amendments, not one. And 10,000 timber workers’ jobs also will be conserved—

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

Dragging Tasmania’s reputation through the mud!

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

something that you never hear the incessantly interjecting Senator Brown ever talk about. That is 10,000 jobs which federal Labor does not care about either. While the Howard government has moved swiftly to address the uncertainty created by the recent decision, there has been a deafening silence from those opposite. The reason is that Mr Garrett, Labor’s environment spokesman, is opposed to forestry in Tasmania, and he is most definitely opposed to the Regional Forest Agreement in Tasmania. This is what Mr Garrett had to say about RFAs in 1999—and listen carefully, those opposite: ‘RFAs are a completely flawed and discredited process.’ The simple fact is that Labor’s Mr Garrett, just like Senator Brown, is opposed to regional forest agreements and is opposed to forestry in Tasmania.

While Mr Latham may well have gone, his extreme green antijobs agenda survives in the form of Mr Garrett, who has been deliberately placed in this vital policy role by Mr Rudd. Let there be no mistake: if Mr Rudd and Labor were to win government, it would be the extreme green, antijobs views of Mr Garrett which would prevail. Their record and the views of Mr Garrett make this very, very clear. Only the Howard government can be trusted to conserve both jobs and the environment, getting the sensible balance that Australians so desperately want.