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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 6 Hansard (15 May) . . Page.. 1679 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

As for the rest of the plantation burnt at Christmas time, which is the majority of the affected land, the government does not support a review of the kind suggested by Ms Tucker, or by Ms Dundas from a somewhat different perspective. Adequate processes are already in place to best meet the needs of the ACT community and address the issues of concern.

The plantation area is zoned in the National Capital Plan and the Territory Plan for use as a pine plantation. This is important public open space and, in the circumstances, needs to be restored as soon as possible. The National Capital Plan specifically states that the pine plantation in the Greenhills area should be used in a way that reinforces the landscape character of the area. It also provides for multiple uses of the area. This will be achieved by replanting the burnt area with another forest of pine trees. We all praise Walter Burley Griffin. The pine plantations were very much part of his planning.

Delaying the replanting of this site until after a formal review would mean that the area could not be replanted until the winter of 2003. By mid-September it will be too late to plant this year, as the soil profile will be beginning to dry out again. The rain of the last week or so has been very helpful.

I feel certain that the people of Canberra will not be happy if this important recreational area is left in a barren state for another year. Delaying the replanting will also cause significant environmental problems such as weed infestation and soil erosion.

The ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia to have banned the harvesting of native forests. We do not harvest native forests in the ACT. We concentrate our forestry operations in plantations. Elsewhere in Australia the green movement is campaigning to stop the logging of native forests and transfer the production of timber to plantations. Plantation forestry is a sustainable way of producing the timber the community needs.

ACT Forests operates as a commercial public trading enterprise, with its primary purpose being the management of the territory's 16,000 hectares of commercial pine plantations. This is pretty much the minimum area of pine plantation required to maintain a viable plantation-based forestry industry in the ACT.

The government believes that ACT Forests needs to operate in a commercial manner. This means that it must be able to make decisions about harvesting and replanting its plantation areas in a timely manner.

ACT Forests commercial forestry operations generate about 350 direct jobs in the ACT, most of which are blue-collar jobs. ACT Forests employs 24 staff. Many of these jobs, as well as those in the wider forestry industry, will be at risk if the area is not replanted as a commercial pine plantation.

Conversion of the pine plantation to a eucalypt plantation is not practicable. Scientific trials dating from the 1930s have not found any native species that are commercially viable, because the growth rates are very much slower than those of pines. The soils and climate around Canberra are fairly harsh, but radiata pine grows well on these sites.

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