In a speech to the National Association of Forest Industries, Ferguson distanced the ALP from the Greens on forestry issues and called on them to "wear" the decisions of "democratically elected governments".
Ferguson claimed that "for the last two years international clients of the forest industry have been subject to a lobbying and email campaign calling for a global boycott of Tasmanian products." He said "the Greens have also undermined the Tasmanian forest industry with UK parliamentarians, potentially jeopardising UK visitor numbers to
Tasmania and placing at risk the almost $50 million spent by British tourists in Tasmania each year."
Lauding the $1 billion contributed to the Tasmanian economy each year by forestry, Ferguson said that Tasmania's timber industry "is conducted to the highest standards in accordance with the Australian Forestry Standard, the development of which was initiated by the Commonwealth government and based on internationally agreed criteria".
He said that Australia's sustainable forestry policies were working to "maintain our forest assets in perpetuity".
In contrast, Ferguson argued, countries such as Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Chile, Guatemala "and a host of
other developing countries" felt under pressure to log their forests as a means of providing jobs "to release their people from poverty".
The policies of the Greens would "scare international customers away from sustainable forest resources in Tasmania to
countries where illegal logging leaves a trail of total devastation, but where ignorance is bliss".
Ferguson's forthright comments represent an attempt by the ALP to regain some of its core support in the electorate, particularly in Tasmanian seats such as Bass and Braddon which were lost to the Liberal Party in the 2004 election.
This is the text of a speech to the National Association of Forest Industries by the Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Forestry, Resources & Tourism, Martin Ferguson.
I welcome the opportunity to be here with you today to discuss the very important topic of "future forests".
Australia's forests are very important in both an environmental and an industry resource context.
You know the statistics of the industry better than any, but let me just recap.
Australia has 155 million hectares of native forests.
About 10% - 11 million hectares - of those forests are managed for wood
production with less than 1% being harvested in any one year.
The small proportion of forests that is harvested annually is
regenerated so that a perpetual supply of native hardwood and softwood
is maintained in this country.
And let me say that Australia is fortunate to have some of the best
foresters in the world working to maintain our forest assets in
perpetuity.
Foresters who are committed to providing good conservation outcomes and
maintaining a viable forest resource for industry for the long haul
using practices and technology that stand up with the best in the world.
Rather than being recognised for their contribution to forestry their
profession is too often criticised by those who think that forests
should be left to their own devices.
Australia's forest resources would be all the poorer today were we to follow that advice.
The withdrawal of foresters, funding and management resources from
forests turned over to conservation purposes in recent decades has led
to some real environmental disasters in this country.
I could point to the loss of mountain ash forests in southern NSW and uncontrolled bushfires in a number of areas.
I am concerned about the development of a monoculture in the Pilliga
cypress forests in northwest NSW without proper forest management and I
shudder to think of the consequences of runaway fire in the vast
Tasmanian wilderness areas.
In addition to its native forests Australia has about 1.5 million
hectares of plantation forests and the industry is to be commended for
its efforts to further develop both hardwood and softwood plantations,
and to increase the management of those plantations for sawlog
production as well as lower value uses.
We are one of few countries in the Asia Pacific region with the land
availability and capability to expand sustainable forestry through
further plantation development over the coming decades.
Because we are living in an historic era of global economic expansion,
particularly on our doorstep in the Asia-Pacific, in China and India,
demand for forest products, like other resources, is skyrocketing.
So the sustainable expansion of Australia's forest industry is very
important to meet global demand and contribute to our own economic
prosperity.
Most estimates are that a third to a half of the world's forests have been burnt or chopped down already.
That makes it more critical than ever that the world's remaining
forests are managed sustainably for conservation, for the world's
future forest product needs, and for the enormous environmental
services that they perform in maintaining global biodiversity and
providing carbon sinks to manage climate change.
Arguing that the rest of the world is benefiting from their natural
forest wealth without shouldering the environmental cost, Papua New
Guinea's Prime Minister put the proposition this week that perhaps the
developed world should pay for the preservation of rainforests in
developing countries.
I would argue that any foreign aid directed in that way should come
with reciprocal obligation and that obligation has to include stamping
out unsustainable forestry practices and illegal logging and
deforestation in those countries.
Just today the Indonesian Forestry Minister is quoted as saying the
level of forest destruction in Indonesia has reached "serious" levels.
There are claims that illegal logging in Indonesia destroys about 3 million hectares of forests every year.
That's about three times Australia's legitimate harvest each year.
It is not just squatters, but legitimate forestry companies that are
contributing to illegal logging, deforestation and poor forestry
practices in Indonesia.
And Indonesia is not the only country under siege in this way.
Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Chile, Guatemala and a host of
other developing countries feel under pressure to cut down their
forests for timber or to make way for coffee plantations because this
has been their only real option to release their people from poverty
and deliver an economic future.
With the world facing such significant problems in managing global
demand for forest products and maintaining a globally sustainable
forest resource I find it more than difficult to understand the
campaign being run by the Greens against Australia's and particularly
Tasmania's forest industry.
For the last two years international clients of the forest industry
have been subject to a lobbying and email campaign calling for a global
boycott of Tasmanian products.
The Greens have also undermined the Tasmanian forest industry with UK
parliamentarians, potentially jeopardising UK visitor numbers to
Tasmania and placing at risk the almost $50 million spent by British
tourists in Tasmania each year.
Not to mention the $1 billion that the forest industry itself contributes to the Tasmanian economy each year.
It is extraordinary that elected representatives of the Australian
people could place the economic security and the jobs of their
constituents at risk in this way.
I have had the privilege many times in my life to represent my country
overseas as a representative of the trade union movement or the
Parliament of Australia, and I have always been proud to sing its
praises.
Not so members of the Greens who, on the back of taxpayer funded
salaries and superannuation entitlements travel or write overseas to
undermine the jobs of their constituents and the integrity of
Australian industry.
If there are resource or industry or environmental policy issues to be
addressed in our country, the place to address them is in our own
Houses of Parliament and through the due processes of our own
governments.
And the Greens, like the rest of us, should wear the decisions of those
democratically elected governments, of which they are part.
Let's not forget that without economic prosperity no government can pay
for the social and environmental welfare measures so vigorously
demanded by the Greens.
The Australian Labor Party knows full well that the key to a better Australia is jobs and economic prosperity for all.
And the fact of the matter is that Australia's and Tasmania's forest industries are part of the key to achieving that.
Tasmanian forestry is conducted to the highest standards in accordance
with the Australian Forestry Standard, the development of which was
initiated by the Commonwealth government and based on internationally
agreed criteria.
The AFS was developed through a rigorous three year process where
community, expert scientists and government representatives came
together to draft the standard.
It holds global mutual recognition under the Programme for the
Endorsement of Forest Certification, which is the largest international
sustainability recognition framework for forestry in the world.
The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation has also
recognised Forestry Tasmania's AFS-certified forests for exemplary
forest management as part of its "in search of excellence" program.
This puts the AFS and Tasmanian forestry in the world's best practice realm.
Let me also say that, at a time when industrial relations and the
protection of our most vulnerable workers are top of mind for many of
us, I am pleased to see that the AFS, through the collaborative work of
the CFMEU Forest Division and the industry, includes key ILO
conventions in its provisions.
Too often the health, safety and welfare of workers is forgotten in the
drive for industry sustainability - it is about more than the
environment, it's about workers and particularly skills and training
for the future.
Recently I was pleased to defend the $4 million skills and training
funding package for the Forest and Forest Products Employment Skills
Company, a well respected joint industry/union organisation.
A skills and training package entirely appropriate given the changes in
forest industry practices that are essential to implement the Tasmanian
Community Forest Agreement.
Labor supported changes in forest industry practices to end clearfelling and restructure the sawmilling industry.
The move away from clearfelling to more selective logging practices,
historically referred to as "widow-making" because of the inherent
dangers involved for workers, comes with the need for retraining to
address those significant dangers.
Similarly, we need to retrain and reskill workers as technologies in
sawmills and contracting operations change, and as we bring our youth
into the industry for the future.
Now, you may well ask where were the Greens while the industry and the
union were looking after forest workers and developing the AFS to make
Australia's forest industries the best in the world?
The fact of the matter is they were welcomed at the table, but they opted to withdraw from the process.
Now, three years later, they want to discredit the standard and they
want to discredit Tasmanian forestry in the face of contrary evidence
from leading global and national scientific and policy bodies.
I say that is simply not acceptable.
The Greens are a political movement chasing votes like any other party.
The campaign being run by the Greens is aimed at capturing votes, it
has nothing to do with the environment or sustainability, and above
all, it is dishonest.
The result of the Greens actions could well be to scare international
customers away from sustainable forest resources in Tasmania to
countries where illegal logging leaves a trail of total devastation,
but where ignorance is bliss.
This will cost jobs and economic prosperity in Tasmania, our forest
resources will be the poorer, Australia's trade deficit in forest
products - already a massive $2 billion - will grow, and the products
demanded by the global market will still be supplied, but by countries
and producers who don't care about sustainable forestry standards and
who don't care about trashing third world forests forever.
This is the hypocrisy of it.
More of Tasmania's land and forests are protected than anywhere else on
earth - four times the benchmark set by the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and about 40% of the State.
The Australian Forestry Standard is internationally recognised.
The reality is that, to protect our own economic future, we have to be
part of the solution to the environmental impact of economic growth in
our region.
And part of that solution is to continue to grow a sustainable Australian and Tasmanian forest industry.
Shutting it down by slandering its reputation in international markets
is a sure path to environmental and economic disaster, here and in the
developing countries which are backed into the pursuit of an
unsustainable forest industry for short term poverty relief.
It is estimated that almost 10% of timber and wood products imported to Australia are of suspicious origin.
That figure would be much higher for many of our trading partners.
The trade in illegal and unsustainable timber distorts trade,
suppresses prices, and causes major irreversible damage to the
environment.
Dubious importing practices are already contributing to job losses in
Australia where local producers are arguably being unfairly undercut.
We cannot continue to leave our heads in the sand.
Our own economic and environmental future is in jeopardy if we don't
adopt measures to control importation of illegal and unsustainable
timber products and if we fail to set the example in world's best
forestry and forest industry practices with our trading partners.
The answer is to maintain and grow a healthy and sustainable industry in this country using the highest environmental standards.
That's why the Australian Labor Party supports the Tasmanian Community
Forest Agreement and it supports the development of a world class pulp
mill in Tasmania.
Our high standards could add around $100 million to the cost of the
mill compared to less stringent standards for our competitors in this
industry.
Despite the cost impediment, we must support the development of
Australian manufacturing industries - which we require to operate on a
world's best practice basis with respect to environmental and
greenhouse emissions - and not drive them offshore to countries with
lower standards.
It is up to Australia to showcase world's best practice in forestry and wood processing to our trading partners.
The Federal Labor platform commits a future Labor government to
encourage moves away from wood chip exports by promoting greater value
adding and downstream processing.
The Tasmanian pulp mill would be an important step in this direction,
quadrupling the value of Tasmania's woodchips and going a long way to
reduce Australia's trade deficit in pulp and paper products.
Australia has a real leadership role to play in sustainable forestry and forest industries.
It is up to us as a nation to ensure that all our imports and exports
of forest products are certified to give us confidence about the origin
of the products, the legality of their acquisition, and the reputation
and forestry standards of the producers.
This is the first step we can take as a responsible global citizen
towards achieving wider sustainability of the forest industry and
protecting our forest legacy around the world for future generations.
Thank you.
The ALP's spokesman on foresty issues, Martin Ferguson, has launched an attack on the Greens, accusing them of placing at risk the economic security and jobs of their constituents.