Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Friday 22 August was a very important day for one of the key primary industries in the Lyne electorate: National Forestry Day—recognising our forestry and timber industry. Despite successive attacks on it—primarily from the state government and, to a lesser extent, the federal government—it is still a key industry, directly employing more than 5,500 people and providing revenue of $9.2 billion a year from north-east New South Wales forests, plus a further $1 billion in value-add.

This is an industry behind our timber supplies, for housing and infrastructure, construction, transport and manufacturing. Timber is the key input in cladding, panelling, flooring, decking, building, fencing, furniture, pallets, paper and cardboard, agriculture, bridging, power poles and mining—and the list goes on. Timber is a primary product and a primary industry. As such, we need it, and we need to look after it.

The people in this industry are experienced professionals who understand the science behind productive, regenerative, healthy and sustainable resource ecosystems. They are not mercilessly, indiscriminately chopping down trees. They operate carefully and consciously. These are the ultimate eco-aware operators, working in the most sustainable industry, which is also among the most highly regulated and scrutinised in the world.

Governments of all political persuasions need to rethink their traditional negative stance on the industry and instead recognise the infinite value and legitimacy of forestry. Their policies need to start to reflect the reality of forestry, and not the ideology of those opposed to it. A federally funded Social licence to operate research report undertaken in 2023 by the North East NSW Forestry Hub indicated that there is overall support for the native forest industry on the New South Wales North Coast. Support for its retention was at 69 per cent, with just 17 per cent wanting its closure. Those figures are no surprise to those who take a good, deep look at the industry. I truly wonder how many of its opponents in this building have gone out into the bush, visited the harvesting sites, talked with the foresters and harvesters, talked to the timber mill operators and workers, and sincerely engaged with how this industry operates.

This is an industry that has been—and continues to be—responsive to concerns about its practices. It has worked hard to address community concerns and to earn the social licence I spoke of a moment ago. The alternative is not plantations, as is often peddled, as many species like tallowwood, turpentine and ironbark cannot be grown in this environment. Nor should imports be seen as a replacement product. Imported timber often comes without the same environmental and harvesting standards that we impose on our own industry. Through forestry, we can ensure active and real management of our forests. We can create biodiversity and habitat outcomes, foster carbon sequestration and produce a sustainable, renewable resource for our country and, indeed, the world.

But the publicly owned government forests are shrinking, thanks, in large part, to the New South Wales ALP, which, in seeking cheap votes, changed the tenure of state forests to national parks. Consequently, between the Hunter and the Tweed rivers there is more than two million hectares of national park and less than 400,000 hectares of state forest. That's a five-to-one ratio, and it will grow to a six-to-one ratio with the so-called Great Koala National Park to come. ABARES, in its most recent report on Australian wood production in June, said that about 0.05 per cent—or 65,000 hectares—of Australia's native forests are harvested in any one year.

There's an obligation to our constituents and to the nation to explain the impact of these decisions on timber supply, jobs, businesses, the cost of living and housing supply, and we should not forget that part of the revenue generated from utilising native forests goes back into their ongoing management—the timber production. Further, what better nature-based solution is there for the global ambition on climate than native forestry? As trees grow, they absorb and lock away carbon and all that cellulose, and then, after harvesting and processing, that carbon is stored away in the array of timber products in our economy. The sequestration cycle is then repeated with regeneration. It's a virtuous cycle, not a vicious one. The reality is very different to what is being conjured up by the activist and the far Left. National Forestry Day is the day to acknowledge that reality—that the native forest industry is an invaluable contributor to Australia's economy, environment and social fabric.

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