John Watson (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is directed to Senator Abetz, the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation. Will the minister outline to the Senate what actions the Howard government is taking to assist timber workers facing unemployment as a direct result of Labor’s forestry policies?

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

Can I thank Senator Watson for his question and note his longstanding interest and support of the timber workers in our home state of Tasmania. When it comes to forestry policy, my advice to the timber workers of this country is this: don’t look at what a party says it will or won’t do; look at what it actually does do when given the opportunity. We on this side have a proud record of delivering for the timber workers of this country. The same cannot be said of Labor. Today my colleague the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Mr Macfarlane, joined the outstanding member for Bass, Mr Ferguson, in Scottsdale to announce Howard government funding of nearly $6.5 million to secure the ongoing viability of the Auspine timber mill and its associated community—all necessary because, as a result of state Labor forest policy and mismanagement of timber resources, this mill and its associated 300 workers were facing Labor’s unemployment scrapheap. Thanks to our action, the Scottsdale Auspine mill will now be able to source wood from an alternative supply, enabling all existing jobs to be retained.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. Here in Canberra, as a direct result of the failure of state and territory Labor government forest policy, the Howard government has been called upon to provide $4 million to prevent the integrated forest products timber mill from closing, saving some 130 workers’ jobs. And it does not stop there. In Victoria, we have the Labor government planning to lock up renewable and sustainably managed river red gum forests at a cost of $2 million per annum to the local economy and a further 77 jobs. And, Mr President, in your home state of South Australia we have a Labor government putting in place absurd water licensing regulations which will stymie plantation growth and put in jeopardy a $1.5 billion pulp mill proposal at Penola and some 500 jobs. That is an astonishing 1,000 timber workers’ jobs that various state Labor governments are threatening, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. That is without taking into account federal Labor’s forest policy destroying jobs by suggesting we sign the flawed Kyoto protocol.

Yet, despite all this, Mr Rudd and Mr Garrett cynically hope the timber workers of Australia will believe that Labor, if elected, will not lock up any more forests. I leave the last words on Labor’s actual forest policy to one of Mr Garrett’s close mates, the musician and forest activist John Butler of the John Butler Trio. This is what Mr Butler said last week about Mr Rudd’s pretend support for the Tasmanian community forest agreement:

Last time when Labor said they were going to protect the forests they lost the election. Right now they think that might cost them the election again and they have to do something that they don’t necessarily agree with.

They can have the power to override it and change it. Mr Butler is absolutely right, and the state Labor governments prove him to be right. Labor has an accord with the Greens; the coalition has an accord with the timber workers of all the rural and regional communities right around this country, and we will not let them down. (Time expired)