Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Party does endanger the livelihoods of forest workers in Tasmania, despite the fact that the Tasmanian division of the Labor Party and Labor opposition leader Bryan Green have come out in support of this measure. He wants Tasmanian Labor senators in this place to support the forest industry in Tasmania. I wonder why they will not do it. There is no rationale for them not doing it.

Senator Singh could perhaps have a chat to Dick Adams, Sid Sidebottom or Geoff Lyons, who all lost their seats at the last election. I can tell you that one of the reasons Dick Adams lost his seat, after a swing of over 13 per cent, was that the forest industry workers in Tasmania found that, when they really needed him, because of the stance of the Labor Party he could not be relied on. He could not be relied on, despite the fact that he had brought out a report supporting the use of native forest residues in the renewable energy target. Two days later, the Labor Party dudded him. The result was a swing of over 13 per cent against the Labor Party. Yet the Labor Party in this place still will not support forest workers in Tasmania, or anywhere else around the country, although there is very clear evidence that, based on sustainable forest management, utilisation of the residues of native forests for the generation of energy can reduce carbon emissions by up to 96 per cent.

You really wonder if the Labor Party are at all genuine in this debate. They cry; they caterwaul; but, when it comes to the real substance of the issue, when it comes to supporting workers in the forest industry, when they are really needed they are not there—and forest industry workers actually know that. I stood around the tailgate of a four-wheel drive in the forest in Northern Tasmania with some workers and they said, 'We've all voted for Dick Adams in the past, but not anymore, because when we really needed him he wasn't there.' You would have thought, Mr Acting Deputy President Back, that the Labor Party would have learnt their lesson.

So, the suggestion that this is a last-minute thing is a complete misrepresentation. It is a falsehood. It is a furphy. It is dishonest. Supporting the forest industry was written into our election policy at the 2013 election, and I am very pleased that we have now put that provision back into legislation so that we do have a genuine opportunity to reduce carbon emissions over the utilisation of coal by using native forest residues, sensibly based on sustainable forest management as supported by the UN's FAO, as supported by the IPCC, as supported by the CSIRO and as supported by so many high-quality, world-renowned forest scientists in this country.