Tuesday, 7 February 2023

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (17:49): (14) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Agriculture. The Victorian timber industry is a completely sustainable and renewable practice operating under the highest levels of international logging certification and provides three great outcomes. Firstly, the Australian forestry industry contributes $24 billion to the national economy annually. Secondly, it provides thousands of jobs for Victorians, specifically in rural and regional communities. Thirdly, it provides incredible environmental benefits due to its carbon capture and storage qualities, removing emissions from the atmosphere. The engineering and science worlds have found it impossible to replicate a machine or process as effective as forests at removing carbon from the atmosphere, and industry have found man-made efforts eye-wateringly expensive to use. Yet Labor is going to shut down the entire industry by 2030. The action that I seek is that the government reverse its anti-logging policy and its decision to shut down the industry by 2030.