Mr ZAHRA (11:38 AM) —I want to make a few final remarks in this debate. It galls me to hear the Minister for Forestry and Conservation continually talk about his interest in forest industry workers and forest industry communities. What a farce! What a joke! He has an interest in what the Liberal Party has an interest in, and in what the old Country Party had an interest in, and that is basically making sure that their old Country Party mates in rural Australia—the people who put the money into your coffers every time an election comes around: the sawmillers—get their fair whack and are able to make a great deal of profit out of the access to our community resources.

That is what this bloke has always been interested in. He has been a pretty good advocate of the large timber milling companies and the other companies that make all the profits out of our community resources. As far as his being an advocate on behalf of forest industry workers, he has been exposed time and time again as not being a true advocate on behalf of their interests. This is perhaps best demonstrated by his participation in a government that is determined to take away the right to be able to claim unfair dismissal for companies with fewer than 15 employees. The minister talks about how he has been out there in rural Australia talking to timber millers and workers on the shop floor. I think it is fantastic that he has actually met a few blue-collar workers now. That is great, but it is a shame that it has taken him 19 years of his political life to get out there and actually meet some of these people.

There are quite a few sawmills and timber mills around the place, especially in rural Australia, which employ fewer than 15 people. The minister extended me an invitation to get up on the back of a truck somewhere in my electorate and have a debate with him about the RFA. I welcome that debate, and I can tell you, Wilson, that I will be there. I invite you, Minister—through you, Mr Deputy Speaker—to join with me in a similar debate about why you support taking away the right of those workers in small timber mills to have access to unfair dismissal proceedings when the boss in the rural country town says, `Well, you know, I employed you yesterday, but now I have found out that you're Catholic, so I am not going to employ you anymore,' or, `I understand that you plan on having children in the next couple of years. I do not want anyone who is going to get pregnant, so you're off as well.'

Minister, you would be the person who would be supporting that timber miller—probably the bloke who had given you a few bucks or given the old Country Party a few bucks—and giving them the right to do that. That is your approach, that is a Liberal Party approach, when it comes to whom you represent in rural and regional Australia and in the forest and forest products sector. We do not have that approach. We genuinely support the forest industry workers and the local communities that depend on the forest and forest products sector for their livelihoods. It galls me to have to put up with the minister saying, `We support these rural communities, we really do,' while at the same time he is overseeing the gutting of the Forest Products Laboratory—a laboratory which he knows full well will guarantee a future for those rural communities that depend on the forest and forest products sector.

They are the types of enterprises and that is the sort of public policy which we should be involved in to make sure that these people have a job not just in the next one or two years but over the long term. Hand on heart, he talks about how he is really interested in these small country towns and he names a few of them and all the rest of it. But where was he when the people of Swifts Creek needed a hand? I wrote to him about it and said, `Can you give us a hand? Can you help us out? Can you do something for us? Can you be our champion?' He went missing in action and just parroted the same line as the former Minister for Conservation and Land Management in Victoria, Marie Tehan. She said that, in the same way that they could not have prevented the floods in East Gippsland, they could not have prevented the closure of the Swifts Creek timber mill.

That is not great news for this community or for the 22 blue-collar workers who lost their jobs or for the secondary college which the community worked hard to form and which is probably going to have to close now because there will not be enough students due to the loss of jobs. It will also not help the bloke running the pub who has had to close because he does not have enough income generated from the blokes who used to come in there and have a drink after work. Where was he when the people of Swifts Creek needed him? For that matter, where was the member for Gippsland, the Minister for the Arts and the Centenary of Federation, in representing his constituents? Maybe he was at an art opening in Balmain or somewhere like that, but I bet his constituents wanting him to be there backing them and giving them some support.

This minister enjoys criticising me personally. Every time I am here we always have a look at the clock and see how long it takes him to get around to giving me a bit of a kick for something. I do not mind it because the more he criticises me the higher my vote goes in the electorate of McMillan. He talks about how I do not support the RFA process. That is just completely untrue. The member for McEwen talked before about how I had not been here for any debates on the RFA. That is also completely untrue. The one time that I was not here for a vote on the RFA was when I was helping the Swifts Creek community in trying to restart their timber mill. The question is: where was the minister when that community needed him? Missing in action.

Whilst we always get the same shrill rantings from the Minister for Forestry and Conservation and we always hear him being shockingly partisan in his approach to this issue, that is not what people in rural Australia—the people who depend on a timber industry for their livelihood—want. They want us to be able to get along in this debate; they want us to be able to find a way through which is bipartisan. That is what ordinary punters out there want. They do not want a minister coming in here and having a go at everyone who does not agree with him; they want someone who can find a way through this difficult and complex issue.

Whilst it is easy to take pot shots, whilst it is easy to criticise, whilst it is easy to be partisan and political, that is not what is required. That is not the difficult public policy challenge. Whilst the minister says to me that he is going to come after me in my seat, I say to you, Minister, that there are plenty of people in the electorate of McMillan who will be standing with me against what you and your government represent, because they understand that you are not fair dinkum about helping rural Australia—you never have been.

You have been shown to be hypocritical in your support for the unfair dismissal of workers in companies of fewer than 15 people, you have been shown to be hypocritical by the lack of action which the government has taken in providing assistance to Gippsland by way of an adjustment package and you have been shown to be hypocritical through all the closures of government service delivery points in the electorate of McMillan—and for that matter the electorate of Gippsland—over the last four years. You say to me that you are going to come to McMillan and you are going to challenge to a debate. I say to you: I will be there with bells on. The question is: will you be there or are we going to have a debate about—

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Andrews) —Order! I have been tolerant of the degree of interjection in this debate, but may I suggest that the honourable member address his remarks through the chair.

Mr ZAHRA —I invite the Minister for Forestry and Conservation to participate in a debate at a timber mill in Gippsland as to why he supports the government's view that it is okay for someone in a company which employs 15 people or fewer to be sacked because they are Catholics or because they might get pregnant or for any other stupid reason which a boss can think of. So you join me in that debate, and I will join you in that debate in McMillan any time.