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

Thank you, Mr President. The Greens never want the facts getting in the way of their propaganda. As I was saying, once you start value-adding, creating wood and paper products and using excess wood to replace other polluting energy sources, our forests are in fact carbon positive—vastly so, especially when you consider the CO created in the production of wood alternatives such as aluminium, plastics and concrete. The Greens say that the best way to capture CO is to plant trees and leave them until they die of old age. Indeed, yesterday some misinformed protesters erected a blockade in the Weld Valley in Tasmania with a silly sign saying ‘keep the carbon in our forests’. The only problem is, once a forest reaches maturity, at around 100 years of age, it is no longer storing carbon. While parts of the tree are still growing, other parts are actually dying and releasing CO faster.