Mr NEHL (8:46 PM) —Right at the outset, I would just like to say to the Minister for Forestry and Conservation that I am delighted that he has that portfolio and I am delighted with the way he is handling it, because he is attacking a major problem with decisiveness and a degree of fortitude that we absolutely need. It will come as no surprise to some of the people in the chamber that I intend to concentrate my remarks on the RFA that is currently going through hard labour in the north-east area of northern New South Wales where, of course, the electorate of Cowper is located.

When one hears some of the contributions from the other side, one cannot help but be a little bemused and think perhaps that they are living on a different planet to where I am. We have a situation in New South Wales—particularly in the north-east which takes in my electorate, the electorates of the members for Page and Richmond and some of the electorate of the member for Lyne—where the New South Wales government has just been prevaricating and has been a walking disaster.

I see the whole forestry issue as a very simple one. I know there is an enormous amount of rhetoric that goes on about it, but what we have are forests in northern New South Wales that have been sustainably harvested decade after decade which could go on being harvested sustainably for umpty bumpty more decades, but the Carr Labor government in New South Wales has gone feral and is so influenced by green fanatic environmentalists.

I say to everybody who may be listening to this broadcast: we must conserve our forests; we must have a balanced, rational, reasonable approach to our forestry. We have a situation where we are never going to satisfy the obsessive green, the obsessive conservationist. Every time you give a concession, every time you make a change and say, `Okay, we'll go along with that,' what do they do? They shift the goalposts. If we were to allow them to go on forever shifting the goalposts, we would have no timber industry whatsoever, particularly in New South Wales because the Carr Labor government is completely and totally under the heel of the environmental movement. There was an article in the Coffs Harbour Advocate this morning from NEFA criticising the government, but boy, it has given in to almost every demand that the environmental movement has made. (Quorum formed)

Before I was interrupted by my friend the member for Maribyrnong, I was making the point that in northern New South Wales the forestry industry has been virtually destroyed by the Carr Labor government. What they have done has meant that jobs have been destroyed, mills have closed, logging contractors have gone broke, logging hauliers have gone broke, and the benefit has mainly gone to the large companies. What the Labor government in New South Wales did with its forest policy was unilaterally, without consultation and without discussion, just out of the blue create new national parks here, new national parks there, and wilderness areas all over the place. Mind you, these so-called wilderness areas very often have been logged again and again and again.

Mr Causley —One was a potato patch.

Mr NEHL —As my friend says, one was actually a potato patch which was declared a wilderness. There has been no consideration of the people. I say continually that the `p' in politics stands for people. It has been evident from all of the activities of the Carr Labor government that they have shown no concern. It is heartbreaking to see the number of jobs that have been lost in my electorate in little towns like Dorrigo, for instance, and to see mills close and people lose their jobs.

It is really important to recall that in terms of our approach to this issue the Prime Minister, John Howard, back in 1995 on 30 November, made the point that the socioeconomic factors would be given absolute consideration by this government. And that is what the present minister is doing, and I applaud him for it. You cannot just look at it in isolation. You cannot just say, `We are going to lock up all forests', because the way they are doing it is so stupid. There are logs from Nambucca Heads in the middle of my electorate being shipped up to Casino and Woodenbong to be sawed when the logs up there are not being harvested. And there is good timber, sawlogs, up there, so they are paying—actually we are paying or were paying before we withdrew some of the money from it—up to $300 and $400 extra per trip to take logs from Nambucca Heads up to Woodenbong, Bonalbo or Casino. And that is absolutely crazy.

What they are doing is locking up the forests which would have continued as sustainable forests. And the other side of that coin, which is absolutely disastrous and is going to destroy the forest industry in the next 10 or 20 years, is that they are now cutting out what are virtually saplings that should not be cut for another 20 years. So they have locked up the good forests containing the sawlogs which could be logged, as has been done for decades—and they have put people out of work, destroyed families, destroyed employment and closed down businesses. At the same time they are now saying, `Cut this immature forest and use that.' Of course, if the people on the other side had any knowledge at all about sawmilling and about logging, they would know that the younger tree is totally immature compared to the strength of a larger log. So they are not getting the timber out of it, and it is a very foolish scheme, because it is creating problems further down the track.

I say again that I cannot for the life of me understand the alleged sense of the Carr Labor government in just continually creating more wilderness areas which have very often been logged before. The whole way they have approached this RFA is quite devastating. It is absolutely imperative that this legislation pass through both houses. For years the timber industry has battled to survive continual onslaughts from the conservationists, and on every occasion the end result has been to the detriment of the industry and the loss of jobs.

The RFA process has been working in Victoria and in Tasmania. All states, with the exception of New South Wales, have participated in the RFA process in a mature and sensible way, and many an agreement has been made throughout Australia in relation to the forest industry and very few have lasted. What we have to do is get to the point where the New South Wales government actually gets on with the job of trying to run a proper forestry industry with a resource that can be logged sustainably. After all, timber is a crop. It is the only renewable resource we have. Dig the coal out of the ground, take the oil, take the iron; once it is gone, it is gone. But we can regrow trees, and this is what we should be doing.

I know that the focus of this minister at the table is to try in the long run to see us improve and increase our forest areas. What we should be doing is enlarging our forests. The reality is, in spite of all the hoo-ha, we now have more areas of forest than we had at Federation. Right now there are more areas under forestry than we have ever had. What we should be doing is planting much more.

Mr Laurie Ferguson interjecting—

Mr NEHL —The gentleman at the table might laugh and shake his head but he just displays his ignorance on this particular subject. I know he is very knowledgeable on other things, but I do not think he can see the wood for the trees. He knows nothing about forestry. Perhaps he should concentrate on other things.

In New South Wales, we have national parks and wilderness areas created by Mr Carr. In northern New South Wales, we are very concerned that the government is going to start the grab for private and leasehold land. In fact, it has done that already. People who have had grazing rights for their cattle in forests for 60 years are now being tossed out on their ears. The reality is that even though the cattle have been grazing there for 60 years, the forests have still grown well and have been sustainable and producing the timber that we need. It is unacceptable that we should import billions of dollars of wood products into this country when you see the size of the land we occupy and the resources we have. We are just not doing the job right.

Mr Schultz interjecting—

Mr NEHL —Indeed. I applaud our silviculturists and our forestry people—it used to be State Forests of New South Wales. The way they managed the forests was incredibly professional. Now we have the New South Wales government. I hope to high heaven, for the sake of our forests and for the sake of the people who depend on them, that there will be a change of government on 27 March so that we can start to get our forests under control again. The productive area has been cut back again and again because of the declaration of new national parks and wilderness areas.

One of the things I have been totally distressed about is that there has been aerial mapping done in north-eastern New South Wales because they are going to try to indicate what should be locked up and what should not. Perhaps the photography during the aerial mapping has been great, but the interpretation has been shocking.

Mr Schultz interjecting—

Mr NEHL —As my colleague says, 60 per cent of it has been demonstrated to be incorrect. They actually say, `Here's this bit of forest; that's rainforest.' when it is open sclerophyll! It is absolutely shocking that they should do this. They have already locked up an additional 850,000 hectares in wilderness and national parks. We have to come back to the very simple point that trees keep on growing and, when they are harvested, you replant and they come back again. (Quorum formed) I have to say again that the Carr Labor government has destroyed the timber industry of northern New South Wales. There must be a change of government for the salvation of the forests and the jobs of the people.