Forestry Industry
Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (2.20 pm): South-East Queensland’s $300 million hardwood timber industry workers converged on Maryborough on Sunday to express frustration with Labor’s inaction in supporting the industry. Hundreds of forestry industry workers and supporters are frustrated with Minister Furner’s willingness to put the future of the industry at stake. I was there, so was the member for Maryborough, who says he is listening. He is either doing nothing about his own government’s inaction or, worse still, he has no impact. It appears that the Premier and Minister Furner are not listening to him. It is just not good enough.
Mr Saunders interjected.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Stewart): Pause the clock. Member for Maryborough, you are not in your correct seat so you are now warned under the standing orders.
Mr PERRETT: There is widespread frustration that there will not be enough hardwood timber to supply and meet the demand of local sawmills. By 2024 Labor’s Beattie-era state forest lockouts will come into effect. It will create a shortage of hardwood supply at local mills. The timber industry is calling on the government to extend for a minimum of 10 years the current state owned supply arrangements to allow a transition to greater use of sustainably managed private forest. It is entirely reasonable that the state supply and guarantee investment confidence for mills, the associated supply chain and the jobs in the sector.
Queensland’s existing hardwood plantations are supposed to supplement the removal of state forest harvesting. They are simply incapable of supplying the demand for their renewable and sustainable product. Denying the forestry industry access to suitable hardwood is devastating. It is clear the industry and the nearly 2,000 jobs it supports across 40 sawmills are on the line. We also have Minister Lynham’s new regulatory vegetation management codes which are on their way. They are another attack on the industry. We need to save these jobs. The timber industry employs 803 people in the Gympie region and 732 jobs on the Fraser Coast. These are real jobs that have a big impact on electorates like mine and Maryborough. It is time the weak Premier showed leadership and guaranteed the future of these vital industries and the jobs of its workers.
On the weekend we learnt that 21,000 hectares of the Imbil State Forest has been earmarked by the Labor government to be locked up. Minister Enoch says nothing. This new proposal will have a major impact on the industry as well as employers like Laminex, an innovative and progressive company which was lauded in April and financially assisted by the Minister for State Development to save local jobs. Now it is being undermined by the government’s extreme agenda to close forestry and lock up state forest. Minister Enoch needs to reject this outright.
Minister Furner needs to stand up to the radical greens in the Labor Party and stop this happening. It is time ministers Furner and Lynham ditched the green agenda and delivered the timber and forestry industry the certainty it needs to employ and continue operating. It is time the Premier acted.