Senator IAN MACDONALD (6:12 PM) —The Regional Forest Agreement between the Commonwealth and Tasmania was an agreement—supported by both sides of parliament, I might add—that really underpinned the very successful and vibrant forestry industry in Tasmania. I want to raise in this chamber the issue of the Gunns mill in Tasmania, which is dependent upon the local forestry industry for its material. Of course the Regional Forest Agreements instituted by the Howard government underpinned the arrangements for the forestry industry in Tasmania.

I simply cannot believe that activity by a small minority of Tasmanians, reflected in this chamber by the Greens political party, can possibly yet again—it has happened twice in the shortish history of Tasmania—bring about the demise of a facility which could provide so many jobs and so much wealth for the island state. I appreciate that my Tasmanian colleagues will, perhaps on other days, speak on this, and perhaps they understand more than I the importance of the pulp mill. It annoys me that a small group is attempting to destroy a business that could be so good for Tasmania. The attempt two or three decades ago to build a pulp mill—

Senator Barnett —1989.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —Thank you, Senator Barnett. That was destroyed again by the same group of people. They thought that they had done a marvellous thing by stopping this operation, which could have provided so much wealth and so many jobs for Australia. They continue to do that. I simply cannot understand it. The Tasmanian forestry industry is sustainable. The Greens have never been able to explain to me how shutting down an industry that is so well managed in Australia and that is so sustainable can help the cause of world forests and greenhouse gas emissions. We will still continue to use paper made from pulp, but if we do not make it from Australian produce we will simply buy it from forests that have been decimated in the Amazon or in the Solomons or elsewhere in the world that do not have the same sort of very precise management arrangements that the Australian forests have.

I hope that the Gunns mill will continue. I wish it all the best, because it will again be a great tragedy for our nation if a small group of people can, by their activities, destroy what could be—and, if it is allowed to go ahead, will be—a great facility, a great business and a great operation for Australia in the state of Tasmania. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.