The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 2 July 1998, from Senator Murphy:

Dear Madam President

Pursuant to Standing Order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move:

That in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Government's failure to adhere to and implement the Wood and Paper Industry Strategy of 1995 and its lack of policies and interest in preventing the loss of jobs in the forest and paper industry, such as the 250 jobs to be lost at the Burnie Pulp Mill due to Government inaction; and the need for the Government to immediately:

(a) constitute the Wood and Paper Industry Council under its original terms of reference with appropriate funding necessary to enable it to achieve the outcomes contained in the Wood and Paper Industry Strategy;

(b) announce an implementation timetable for the Wood and Paper Industry Strategy with particular attention being paid to the actions that can be taken to further process and value add timber in Australia;

(c) enter into immediate discussions with AMCOR, the relevant trade unions, the Tasmanian Government and the Burnie City Council to determine what actions need to take place to retain the pulp mill in Burnie;

(d) encourage all governments in Australia to recommit to the definition of `ecologically sustainable development' contained in the National Forest Policy statement which was signed by all Australian governments in 1992;

(e) recognise that the Australian community will not tolerate the export of largely unprocessed forest products especially logs and woodchips while our own manufacturing sector is suffering a serious decline and increasing competition from imported products sourced from forests that are not, in any way, managed on an ecologically sustainable basis; and

(f) implement legally available measures to ensure that any wood, pulp or paper products imported into Australia comes from forests that meet applicable and internationally certifiable environmental standards of forest management.

Senator Shayne Murphy

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clocks accordingly.