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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 7 Hansard (18 October) . . Page.. 1767 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

The truth is that employment in the industry has fallen from around 55,000 in the early 1970s to around 32,000 now, and continued decline is inevitable. Job losses have been due to industry restructuring in the form of greater concentration of industry ownership, the penetration of softwood, and the extension of labour-saving machines and methods. Unemployment in the industry has been due mainly to the commercial decisions of big timber companies, not the environmental decisions of governments. Employment in export woodchipping accounts for one per cent of jobs in forest product industries.

We must look at the timber industry as a whole and, of course, at the value we place on forests, and especially on wilderness. Only 2 per cent of the most productive old growth eucalypt forests are left in Australia and they are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the country. This industry has been logging unsustainably for many decades now. There is such a limited resource that even sawloggers are being driven to the wall because State governments have made long-term commitments to export woodchip companies such as Boral and Daishowa. This means that competition for an increasingly limited resource is once again favouring large companies over the small family-owned sawmills. The industry argues that it is okay; that it will all grow back. If a logging concession area has been logged by the industry for future pulpwood and not for future sawlogs, the harvesting regime will reflect this very clearly, which is why we see logging rotations happening in short cycles as low as 40 years in some areas, and the quality of the very dense regrowth can be described only as being closer to a plantation than the original ancient forest which it replaced. In other words, it does not grow back.

Here in the ACT we can feel very glad that those forests strictly within our borders are protected. However, the same forest ecosystem continues across the political border into New South Wales, where logging is relentless in the areas around the Eden chip-mill and where many thousands of arrests have occurred. In fact, more people have been arrested in the south-east forests of New South Wales than in the Franklin area. Many of the people arrested in the south-east forests - hundreds of people - have been Canberrans. People who were arrested in those forest battles came from all walks of life and included professors, housewives, builders, writers, artists, politicians, members of the clergy, public servants, and grandparents. As someone who has been involved in many forest actions and blockades over the years, I can tell you quite honestly that people do not make the decision to be arrested lightly. You can be sure that when they risk the possibility of going to gaol they think about it very carefully.

The second part of the motion, Mr Speaker, urges the Government to partake in a highly ethical consumer decision to ensure that government purchasing policy includes only the purchase of recycled or plantation paper, paper products, and timber. The Federal Government two years ago instigated a government preferred paper purchasing policy process which came to a standstill when the industry fought for the right to label forest derived paper on an equal basis with industry derived paper because they claimed yet again that forests were as sustainable as plantations. So the debate on the issue went back to square one because the Government did not stand up to the industry.

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