Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) | Hansard source

Russia. Let's talk about Russia. What a great interjection! We'll talk about that. We have seen timber being dumped, outside of sanctions, in Australia, by not following process. We are seeing Chinese timbers, LVLs, processed timbers, Russian birch and other things coming here via systems. We are promoting Russian breaches of trade sanctions by stopping Australian hardwoods from being produced. This is the reality of the world and the timber industry. The only thing we are stopping if we stop the Australian timber industry is Australian jobs.

Native animals will still be killed, just not in Australia. We heard that native animals in Australia get damaged by this. We have this great thing called the Great Koala National Park that is being proposed in New South Wales. Timber were happy to work in reserved areas and said: 'Yes, we'll make a koala park slightly bigger than it is now. We'll give you 70,000 hectares more.' But, no, they want more. They want 170,000 hectares. So we've virtually stopped what we call logging on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. But the studies show this: the koalas in the managed forest, where logging activities were being undertaken, were healthier and more numerous than those in the national parks. The national park koalas were malnourished and unhealthy compared to those in the managed area.

We don't want to tell that story, and the truth was said by the previous speaker. They want to ban all native logging full stop. There's not a reason for it. We can cut down trees where we want to build wind towers. We can kill native animals where we want to build solar farms. We can do all of this. We can cause the rest of the world to lose their forests and their animals. We just can't do that in Australia. There are people in this parliament—they are consistent; I get that—who want to see the shutting down of all extractive industries, everything that brings money to Australia, because their agenda is ruining the economy, not protecting the environment. That is the main reason we stand here today, and we see it consistently time after time after time.

You see these ACCUs and carbon credits. Why should money be put aside for forests to just do their thing and grow with no additionality? We are locking up the Great Koala National Park and the areas around the north coast for no reason. The forests are there. They are being managed. We have a healthy koala population. We're living through it. In Tasmania—I'm not going to speak with authority, Senator McKim, on Tasmania. I'll give that to them and the other Tasmanians here. But let's get down to it. The end of all native logging in Australia is the wrong policy. It doesn't take into account the carbon leakage, it doesn't take into account the death of animals right across the world and it doesn't support regional jobs. Just ask the people of Baradine, who have nothing to show for it—no koalas and no timber.