Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The forests and forest product industry gala dinner in the timber-clad Great Hall, the people's hall, was a wonderful event last night. It was attended by the Prime Minister, who told the foresters—mind you, there was not a Green to be seen—'You are a splendid industry. We want to ensure you have a bright future. You are the original conservationists.'

A discussion paper was launched, with feedback to be sought over the next 10 weeks, on the fantastic future of the forestry industry. It was launched by Senator Richard Colbeck, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, who said that a well-managed forest will store more carbon than one left to its own devices, and we all know that.

The extensive plantation pine forests of the Riverina and Murray Valley, particularly around Tumut and Tumbarumba shires, strategically developed since the 1970s, have underpinned an unprecedented amount of investment in value adding and job creation in the region. Major world-scale sawmills, forestry companies and paper producers now call the region home.

For example, Visy Industries, a 60-plus-year-old, 100 per cent Australian company, developed a state of the art pulp and paper mill near Tumut in 2000, with an initial investment of around $450 million. Since then, with several stages of additional development, the company has spent a total of more than $1 billion—a billion dollars—in private capital there. I understand that, right now, that record of investment is continuing, with further mill enhancements of around $40 million currently in the pipeline. That is tremendous news for the Riverina.

This amazing regional development project has generated more than 900 jobs in the region, a third of them inside the plant and the remainder working in the plantation forests, transport and other services. The mill itself is acknowledged as a world leader in process, technology and environmental performance in things such as renewable energy, water efficiency and low emissions. Few people realise that this plant is one of the largest exporters of containerised manufactured product in the whole of Australia. It produces reels of high quality industrial paper for markets in Asia, the Americas and Europe as well as Africa.

This mill facility is one example of the huge job and investment benefits that flow from the long-term plantation forestry investment in my region. Australia's total employment in the forestry sector—forestry, wood, pulp and paper manufacturing—in 2013-14 was 70,500. This is an increase of almost 10,000 jobs since the coalition won government in 2013, and a sign that the industry is recovering from mismanagement under the previous Labor government. The volume of logs harvested in Australia in 2013-14 was estimated at around 25.4 million cubic metres. Of this, 11.1 million cubic meters were harvested from hardwood forests and 14.3 million cubic metres from softwood forest. In Tumut and Tumbarumba shires, their gross regional product is dependent on forestry, and may that long continue.