Page 3505 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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standards for those who make or produce wood-burning appliances. But at the end of the day all those measures are, to varying degrees, less effective than education of people who actually have them in their homes.
Mr Acting Speaker, the recommendation at paragraph 10.9 covers the question of how we deal with suppliers of wood. Obviously, there is something of an industry here in Canberra. I believe that a monetary value was put on that industry at one point, but I do not think it is in the report.
Certainly, it is a considerable industry in the ACT and it needs to be carefully patrolled, to the extent that there is a problem in our surrounding region with the depletion of supplies, to the extent that there is something of an attraction to people building homes these days in putting in either wood-burning appliances or open fires, and to the extent that there is a need to ensure that the supplying of that market does not become a threat to the environment of the ACT and surrounding region.
The committee debated the question of whether the Government should proceed to license, or to have a system of registration of people or organisations that collect firewood and sell firewood in the Territory. The committee came to the view, after debate, that the most effective way of dealing with the problem of poor standards or low standards in that industry was through registration rather than licensing.
The committee felt that it was appropriate to ensure that people understood their obligations by being able to contact those people; by being able to say to those people, "This is what we expect of you to handle, in an environmentally responsible way, the issues connected with wood collection and wood sale, and we would rather you did this through cooperation than through coercion".
I think we achieved something of value in that. Obviously, we must encourage people to use and to sell dry wood, to sell seasoned wood, and to collect that wood in an environmentally sensitive fashion; not to cut down trees that are, in some way, threatened or rare; not to cut down trees that constitute an integral part of the environment, such as habitats for fauna; and, of course, ensure also that the wood is sold in the ACT at correct weight.
All those things need to be monitored in some way. There are abuses at present. We need to address those and we believe that we can do so through a system of registration of people who supply wood in the ACT. I think that is a recommendation which the Government would be happy to consider. Obviously, we should avoid burdening small collectors of firewood. Many people collect only a trailer load or two during a season and sell off any excess. Those people should not be in the same position as larger collectors, and we should be careful about that.
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