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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-02-14 Daily Xml
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FORESTRYSA

The Hon. S.G. WADE (15:41): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government and Minister for Regional Development a question about the state forests.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In 2010, the Rann Labor government suffered an 8.4 per cent swing against it in the seat of Port Adelaide. In 2011, premier Rann was replaced and new Premier Weatherill said that the government had heard the voice of the people and would re-engage with the community. In 2012, the Weatherill Labor government suffered a 9.8 per cent swing against it in the seat of Port Adelaide, more than the swing against the Rann government, yet Premier Weatherill simply continues the spin that the government has heard the voice of the people and would re-engage with the community.

I ask the Leader of the Government: what is regional South Australia telling her about the government's decision to sell the state's forests? Has she conveyed that view to other members of cabinet; and considering the government's continued failure to regain the confidence of the people of South Australia, when will the government take real steps to re-engage and reverse the decision to sell the state's forests?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (15:42): Indeed, I think it was back in May 2011 that the Treasurer announced the forward sale of ForestrySA's harvesting rights for its Green Triangle estate and announced that it would proceed after a regional impact statement prepared by a ACIL Tasman concluded that it would have no significant economic, social or environmental impacts. These are the issues of concern that have been raised by the locals. They have been concerned about the impact on jobs and the impact on the long-term sustainability of the forestry industry. This report was conducted, as I said, by an independent body who concluded that there would be no significant economic, social or environmental impacts.

In response to the sorts of issues that locals have raised and by listening to their concerns, we established the South-East Forestry Roundtable to recommend to government on the conditions of any forward sale before going to market and also the long-term viability of the forestry industry in that area. In effect, they have two terms of reference. We also provided sawmill owners with ForestrySA log supply contracts, with an option to extend them by a further five years to protect job security.

We ensured any sale condition include the new purchaser agreeing to rotation length, consistent with the current planned ForestrySA standards to maintain the standard of the forest products from the region, because one of the concerns we heard from locals was that the new owner might just come in and fell everything very quickly and then leave the industry without any work for a number of years and, therefore, completely undermine the industry. We have addressed that issue of concern.

We will ensure that there is a commitment from the new purchaser to match ForestrySA's current level of planned viable domestic supply to guarantee a future local timber industry and also to require a successful purchaser to report yearly to the government to ensure they are meeting their contractual obligations—and, again, another concern was that there would be a lack of transparency.

So, indeed, we have listened very closely to the concerns of locals. We understand that there is still a high degree of dissatisfaction. We absolutely acknowledge that there is still a high level of dissatisfaction with the government's response that it intends to proceed with this sale, and we will listen to and address the concerns of locals in the way that we have. We are committed to continuing to do that. We are committed to proceeding with this sale, because it is part of our budgetary savings strategy and this revenue is most important in terms of helping us manage our budget.

We do listen. We have been out there. The Premier has been there and I have visited also, as have numerous other government members. I understand there is a high level of agitation. People do not like change and are concerned about the long-term interests of the industry, but we believe the Weatherill government has listened and we are addressing concerns as we go along.

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