Senator Brown asked the Minister for Forestry and Conservation, upon notice, on 10 December 2001:

With reference to the answer to question on notice no. 3641 (Senate Hansard, 20 August 2001, p. 26203): How much of the Commonwealth Government's plantation and industry package, under the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement, is planned to be or has already been spent on replacing native forests by plantations.

Senator Ian Macdonald (Minister for Forestry and Conservation) —The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

The honourable senator asked a similar question on 22 June 2001, the answer to that question was tabled on 20 August 2001. Tasmania has allocated $10 million of the Commonwealth funding package to eucalypt plantation development, which includes, among other activities, establishment of plantations on land previously under native forest. However, as previously stated, the Commonwealth Government does not have the detailed information requested.

The Tasmanian RFA provides clear guidelines for plantation establishment on sites where native forest has been cleared for this purpose, including limits on the extent to which this can occur. These guidelines ensure the maintenance of native forests within specified criteria to preserve regional biodiversity. Also, the replacement of native forest with plantations occurs only in forest areas that now lie outside the conservation reserve system established under the RFA. In other words, this activity is making forests already available for timber harvesting more productive, and within strict limits.

To obtain the detailed information requested, I would recommend that the honourable senator make a request to the Tasmanian Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure, Energy and Resources, the Hon Paul Lennon MHA.