Anne Urquhart (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government is unequivocal in its support for a sustainable and innovative Australian forestry industry. This means both native forestry and plantations. We recognise that native forests are a crucial and complementary source of wood products that plantations cannot supply. This reduces our reliance on importing this timber from countries that have weaker environmental standards.

I recently visited Britton Timbers in Smithton in the Circular Head region on the far north-west coast of Tasmania. Britton Timbers celebrated its centenary in 2007. Britton Timbers has been a provider of quality Tasmanian timber—timber like blackwood, Tasmanian hardwood and other timbers—for over 100 years, providing good jobs for locals. Around one-third of the employees have been with Britton's for more than 10 years, and 17 per cent have been with the company for over 20 years. Britton Timbers have invested significantly in new technology to provide for more product flexibility to meet their customer requirements. The imported timber that they use is sourced from suppliers who identify environmental sustainability as a principal factor. Their timbers are also sourced principally from forests with international certification. Sitting down and talking with Shawn Britton was not only educational but also refreshing—hearing about how they care about their resource and also about their environment.

The forest industry, like all our resource based industries, have long value chains. The Tasmanian forestry industry's value chain is made up of forest managers, harvesting contractors, log-truck drivers, sawmill operators and timber wholesalers and retailers. This flows through to house builders and furniture makers—and we have some wonderful specialty furniture makers in Tasmania, who use some of the most stunning timber that we grow. And, of course, we have many craft product makers, who sell their products in the boutique galleries that support our tourism and visitor economy. Annually, in Tasmania, we have the wonderful Australian Wooden Boat Festival, which has grown to become the largest single regular event on the Tasmanian tourism and events calendar. These beautiful boats are built from timbers that the Tasmanian timber industry is famous for. The native hardwood timber sector alone contributed $278 million to the national economy in 2022-23. This very much outlines its ongoing importance to our regional communities, providing jobs with wages that are often spent in the local economy and in our regional communities.

In Somerset, a small town in Braddon, Forico have their plant nursery, which I recently visited with Minister Julie Collins. Forico is the largest private forestry management company in Tasmania and the largest hardwood replanting program in Australia. They currently breed and deploy species such as blue gum, shining gum and radiata pine. The nursery has capacity beyond Forico's internal needs and grows commercial seedlings for external clients both in Tasmania and on the south-east mainland of Australia.

Decisions about the day-to-day management of native forests are ultimately a matter for the state governments, and our government is committed to providing a stable national framework, like the Regional Forest Agreements, that allows for sustainable native forestry to continue to occur. This government has a positive, forward-looking plan for the entire forestry and wood product sector. Through record investment, genuine partnership and a commitment to innovation, we are ensuring a strong, sustainable and prosperous future for the industry—and also, more importantly, the regional communities that depend so heavily on it.

The Albanese government is backing the forestry industry with a landmark investment of $300 million to improve capacity, to drive innovation and to secure those jobs of the future. We're delivering where the previous government failed; while they promised a billion trees and delivered only one per cent, our $73.8 million Support Plantation Establishment program has already awarded funding for 25,000 hectares of new plantations. Through the Accelerated Option of Wood Processing Innovative Program, $89.49 million in grants has been provided to 30 projects to modernise manufacturing infrastructure and ensure our local processors remain at the cutting edge. There is a lot more that I could talk about in this. I am running out of time, but I do want to say that we are doing a lot more work within this area around forestry.

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