Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

This decision secures the future of Australia's native forestry industry. That's 52,000 workers that are directly employed that can now get back to what they do best—that is, manage this renewable resource for the benefit of regional communities that rely on this world-class sector.

Our agreements remain the best way of balancing the environmental, social and economic demands of our native forests. This judgement provides certainty. It provides certainty for the workers, for the community and for investment, which means that we will continue to be able to have investment jobs in the future. The irony of the ideological fixation on shutting down our native timber sector is that this will not stop us using appearance grade timber. All it will mean is that people who want appearance grade timber will buy it from countries that do not have the kind of environmental protections that this country has. (Time expired)