Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the shadow portfolios I have the great honour to hold is forestry. On 19 August, before we come back, it will be National Forestry Day. I also note that I have the privilege of serving with my great friend from the other side Senator Raff Ciccone as the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Forestry, Timber and Paper Products.

This speech is a two-minute speech, there are two minutes allocated to it. The reason that's important to forestry is this: with the Australian forest holdings, every two minutes enough timber is grown to build a house. So, in the two minutes that I am talking in this speech, all of the Australian plantations and forests will grow enough in volume to build an entire house. That happens all the time.

I had a great fun time going up to the Hyne Timber Tuan Mill near Maryborough in Queensland and seeing the care and pride they take in producing the timber. It was way more than I thought. It's not a Monty Python skit with lumberjacks walking around. These guys process and scan through the wood. They test for flexibility. Each individual plank, each individual length that comes out, is guided for quality control. They want to minimise waste. They want to get that out here because they know that every tree that they are processing and every piece of wood that they're doing is taking carbon out of the air. It is a truly green building product from these plantations. They take all this carbon, they make the trees, they put that out and it's replaced—another house every two minutes.

Our forest industry is a great one. Our forest industry means that we aren't taking other timbers from such places as Borneo or the Congo. These things are here. Our people that work in these industries are great. So, on 19 August, I want to celebrate all the workers and all the people up there. We had Joe the GM, David the plant manager and James Hyne, whose name appears on the Hyne Timber sign. They are all out there working in an Australian industry that would be replaced by things that happen worse overseas than they do in Australia. They build a quality product, and I want to support them all.