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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 193 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
Basically, State Forests' plan is for intensification of logging in the southern region, referring to it as integrated harvesting. That term is used particularly to describe the current practice of harvesting sawlogs and woodchips for exports at the same time, as practised in Eden. If industry plans are adopted, double the amount of timber currently harvested would be extracted from the forests of the south-east region.
The harvesting of native forests is not economically viable because of a number of considerations, most of which have not been properly addressed. Those considerations include the extremely low royalties paid for woodchip and native timber sawlogs, the threat to the quality and quantity of water produced in forested catchments, the threat of competition from overseas plantations, and the value of nature-based tourism in the region.
The issue of economics is obviously related to the issue of jobs. I have heard a few people here talk about jobs in an entirely superficial and unsubstantiated manner. The Chief Minister said that someone had told her at the forum that it will cost jobs. Mr Stefaniak gave anecdotal evidence of something that someone said to him. That is absolutely unacceptable for a debate in a parliament on a very serious issue. I would argue that any careful analysis with sustainable long-term employment as the goal would show that the SEFA option would have much greater employment benefit. The job loss numbers used by industry do not take into account plantation jobs, national parks and wildlife jobs, and tourism jobs.
I will talk briefly on the plantation issue. According to Judy Clarke from the Centre for Research and Environmental Studies, there is currently enough timber on plantations to meet local demand. In a paper entitled "The New South Wales Plantation Industry - A Statewide Overview", she states:
... the sawlog supply from NSW softwood plantations (90 per cent of the current estate, the other 10 per cent being hardwood plantations) is projected to more than double by 2000.
Later she stresses:
... 12,000 hectares of softwood plantations are past their commercial clear-fell harvest age of 30 years. Preliminary and conservative estimates indicate that three million cubic metres of sawlogs are effectively stockpiled in these mature plantations - locking up an estimated $100m in royalty revenue and hundreds of secure jobs in regional NSW.
Clarke's paper also looks at employment opportunities. In this context she states:
... the plantation industry currently accounts for about half of the employment in NSW wood product industry - employing an estimated 6,000 people. Processing plantation wood could generate, over the next five years, an additional 3,000 direct jobs in NSW - many in regional NSW.
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