Mr LAWLER —My question is addressed to the Minister for Forestry and Conservation. Could the minister inform the House of what action the government is taking to protect jobs in regional Australia in the forestry industry? What level of support is the government receiving from other groups in relation to these policies?

Mr TUCKEY (Forestry and Conservation; Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) —The government is proceeding at a great pace to get regional forest agreements in place throughout Australia for the purpose of guaranteeing certainty to industry and encouraging their investment to create and guarantee the jobs of many working people in rural and regional Australia into the foreseeable future. Consequently, the government has put forward, with the support of all industry sectors, regional forest agreement legislation so that those agreements that are met between premiers and the Prime Minister will have the backing of legislation.

It is of concern to me, nevertheless, that the Labor Party has again today backed down on one of its own policy initiatives—the national forest policy statement. We heard them daily backing down on their privatisation policy when they were in government. One wonders if now they are so convinced that privatisation does not work whether they are going to buy back the Commonwealth Bank and Qantas, which they sold so they could spend the money. The Labor Party has now announced that it is their intention to propose amendments to the regional forest agreement legislation in direct contradiction to all industry requests, including the trade union movement. They want this legislation. The Tasmanian government wants the legislation and have passed their own regional forest agreement legislation. They want it for certainty, and the proposals put forward by the Labor opposition on this issue would completely negate the purpose of the legislation.

The government will not accept such amendments. It must be known by those opposite who have been getting their names published in the Age newspaper wanting their constituency to know that they are really unhappy about this matter that, on the other hand, in typical Labor style, having signed the piece of paper they are going to vote for something their own constituency does not want. So much for those members of parliament opposite in terms of representing their own constituency. This is a situation where the Leader of the Opposition had to branch stack his own caucus committee to get the result he has delivered on behalf of the left wing in terms of amending the regional forest agreement legislation. It was all in the Age newspaper. Your people are leaking like a sieve on this issue. They really have it in for you.

Mr Tanner interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —The minister will respond through the chair.

Mr TUCKEY —In every way the Labor Party knows that what they are doing is wrong. They want to destroy the very process that they put in place, the regional forest agreement process. In closing, let me point out that in their press release they talked about—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr Tanner interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Melbourne persistently interjects and simply ignores the chair. I warn him. The minister has the call.

Mr TUCKEY —In their press release they talk about how everything should be done as it was in New South Wales and how transparent that was. In New South Wales, out of four regional forest agreements, the New South Wales government has yet to have a written public consultation process. If that is transparent, I will go he! They have refused to publicise the methodology and the data that they are using to write contracts on sawmill entitlement, yet their own Auditor-General says that that is wrong. There are no secrets in Western Australia—you have only to read the media coverage. There are no secrets; it is all on the record.