STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator CICCONE (Victoria) (13:38): Today is National Forestry Day, and it's a day to recognise an industry that is very important to the lives of Australians. I'm very proud to be the Co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Forestry, Timber and Paper Products, and I want to acknowledge the people and the communities that keep this industry moving. Forestry is all around us quite literally here in the Australian Senate, with the Australian blackwood and black bean and the Tasmanian myrtle which you can see in this wonderful chamber and across this building.

It's also in the homes that we all live in, the products that we use every day and the regional communities and businesses that depend and rely on this important industry. Around 80 per cent of Australian homes use timber framing. Timber is the ultimate renewable, reliable and practical source, and it has been trusted by Australians for many generations.

Australian forests, native and plantation, also make a very important contribution when it comes to our environment, storing around 14 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and removing around 16 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year. The forestry industry is about jobs, and it's about opportunities that contribute more than $24 billion to our economy each year, supporting around 80,000 direct jobs and around 100,000 indirect jobs.

There's also a strong case for investing more in local production, and we should be producing all the timber and forest products that we have here in our homes, supporting workers, businesses and many communities, rather than relying on overseas imports with less stringent standards. Today, I want to take the opportunity to thank and acknowledge those who plant, manage, harvest, transport and process our forests and timber.

As our sixth-largest manufacturing sector, the forest products industry supports our environment, our economy and regional communities. Happy National Forestry Day everyone!