MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator CADELL (New South Wales—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (16:42): If only life were so black and white as they would have you believe over in the Greens. If only everything were so absolute and so easy. We see the interesting conversations here.
We heard the previous speaker talk of complex creatures that are wonderfully magnificent in these forests. But these same creatures, things like the wonderful koala—which we love so much in Australia—become nothing but tree rats when they're on a wind tower location. They need to be eradicated—knocked over the head and got rid of—if they sit where a wind tower should go.
The inconsistency here is amazing when we go forward. We see a fine example of ignoring what happens when you stop logging. I give you the Pilliga example in New South Wales.
We lost timber jobs, we lost regional jobs—I see that—and it was all to save a native koala habitat. They estimated there were 18,000 koalas in the Pilliga across New South Wales. I hear you ask: what happened after we shut that down?
Let me tell you. Unmanaged, a bushfire went through and destroyed everything because we didn't maintain the fire trails; we didn't have logging trails; we didn't have anything. We now have a functionally extinct koala habitat in the Pilliga.
They're functionally extinct. We didn't protect them. We didn't protect the animals.
We didn't protect the area. In fact, invasive species of trees have taken over because of these fires. The Pilliga is now nothing like it used to be when it was being managed.
They talk about the massive carbon output of having these things. They don't talk about the carbon sequestration that forests have when they're growing. They take carbon in at a much faster rate when they are growing than they do when they are there.
In fact, recent studies have come to show that forests in states of decline can emit more carbon as rotting timbers come out than they soaked up during their life. It is best practice to take timber and let it grow and absorb carbon in the world. When we see what the alternative is if we don't take Australian hardwoods—there's a joke that goes around in the timber industry.
Why does Merbau flow red when it gets rained on when you're building an industry? Because it is the blood of orangutans when they come from Borneo, Indonesia and other sources when they go there. Because if we don't take Australian hardwoods, we take them from Indonesia; we take them from Papua; we take them from Brazil; we take them from other sources— Senator Ciccone: Russia!
Senator CADELL: Russia. Let's talk about Russia. What a great interjection!
We'll talk about that. We have seen timber being dumped, outside of sanctions, in Australia, by not following process. We are seeing Chinese timbers, LVLs, processed timbers, Russian birch and other things coming here via systems.
We are promoting Russian breaches of trade sanctions by stopping Australian hardwoods from being produced. This is the reality of the world and the timber industry. The only thing we are stopping if we stop the Australian timber industry is Australian jobs.
Native animals will still be killed, just not in Australia. We heard that native animals in Australia get damaged by this. We have this great thing called the Great Koala National Park that is being proposed in New South Wales.
Timber were happy to work in reserved areas and said: 'Yes, we'll make a koala park slightly bigger than it is now. We'll give you 70,000 hectares more.' But, no, they want more. They want 170,000 hectares.
So we've virtually stopped what we call logging on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. But the studies show this: the koalas in the managed forest, where logging activities were being undertaken, were healthier and more numerous than those in the national parks. The national park koalas were malnourished and unhealthy compared to those in the managed area.
We don't want to tell that story, and the truth was said by the previous speaker. They want to ban all native logging full stop. There's not a reason for it.
We can cut down trees where we want to build wind towers. We can kill native animals where we want to build solar farms. We can do all of this.
We can cause the rest of the world to lose their forests and their animals. We just can't do that in Australia. There are people in this parliament—they are consistent; I get that—who want to see the shutting down of all extractive industries, everything that brings money to Australia, because their agenda is ruining the economy, not protecting the environment.
That is the main reason we stand here today, and we see it consistently time after time after time. You see these ACCUs and carbon credits. Why should money be put aside for forests to just do their thing and grow with no additionality?
We are locking up the Great Koala National Park and the areas around the north coast for no reason. The forests are there. They are being managed.
We have a healthy koala population. We're living through it. In Tasmania—I'm not going to speak with authority, Senator McKim, on Tasmania.
I'll give that to them and the other Tasmanians here. But let's get down to it. The end of all native logging in Australia is the wrong policy.
It doesn't take into account the carbon leakage, it doesn't take into account the death of animals right across the world and it doesn't support regional jobs. Just ask the people of Baradine, who have nothing to show for it—no koalas and no timber.