Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

In that case, you force me to make comment on Senator Brown’s statement about wood by-products. I do not know how you get rid of them. The only way you do not get wood by-products is by not having a timber industry—not having thousands of jobs that are in the timber industry in Tasmania. You have to understand that if you process wood you are left with a by-product. What do you do with that by-product? We have heard Senator Brown say that we should not be burning this wood and making power from it. The only other suggestion I can think of is that it be buried. I actually saw that happen in a little mill in Allies Creek. I have mentioned this before, but I think it is worth mentioning again to Senator Brown because he was not in the chamber at the time. This mill, which was closed down by some activists, potentially had thousands and thousands of tonnes of wood waste and before they could get their compensation they were told that they had to bury it. They responded: ‘Why should we have to bury it? The electricity generators want this wood—they want it, they are prepared to pay for it and they are prepared to cart it away.’ They were told, ‘No, you are not going to use that wood.’

Do you know what replaced that wood, Senator Brown? Black coal. That is what went into the generator that could have been running on a renewable by-product, and that was because people of your ilk, the Greens, stopped it. So, instead of using a by-product of wood, they used black coal. That is where your statement ends: we have got to bury, remove or dump into the sea or the river the by-products of the timber industry. Alternatively, you can put it in a furnace and create power.

Senator Brown, you stand up here and pontificate about the timber industry, and we all know that you do not want a timber industry. You would be perfectly happy if there was no timber industry in Tasmania. In fact, you would rejoice if there was no timber industry in Tasmania. But you would not have a hobby horse to flog. You have flogged the timber industry all around Australia. You have just flogged it and flogged it and flogged it. Yes, you have got your little nine or 10 per cent, but you have alienated the other 90 per cent.