Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - I am going to make a brief contribution. I guess I was a bit disappointed that I was not even aware of this motion coming on until the member stood up and spoke of it because I had arranged a briefing with Forestry Tasmania last week because of the concerns that I had about the way Forestry is going and the issues that were confronting them. I felt it important that this Chamber be briefed on just where Forestry is and some of the issues and difficulties that are currently being confronted.

Ms Thorp - Through you, Madam President, an MPI, by its very nature, is urgent. It has to be a notice of motion otherwise.

Mr DEAN - I realise that - it is an urgent motion that is brought at the last moment, as it were. But even if I could have been told - I guess it was known that we were going to move the motion earlier this morning. I am told it was known last night.

Mr Finch - The member for Nelson might have been worried that you were going to speak against the motion so she didn't give you any warning at all.

Members laughing.

Mr DEAN - Maybe, and that certainly was not going to happen.

Mr Parkinson - It was very urgent yesterday and remained very urgent today.

Mr DEAN - I can assure members -

Mr Wilkinson - Even the day before when I spoke with you about time slots.

Mr DEAN - That was not going to happen because why would I have organised and arranged a briefing with Forestry to bring us in touch with what was going on in that area? The member for Huon says it is not in crisis. I think I would agree with that comment but, certainly, they have troubles. That came out in the briefing we had last week from Forestry of some issues that they are currently confronted with and that they need to get around and sort out. So they have difficulties and it was a wonderful briefing, I thought, last week. The handout that we were given really sizes it up very well and identifies where Forestry wants to go into the future and the things that they now have to get on top of.

Certainly the other reason I would want to talk on this and give support to this urgency motion is the fact that it impacted very much on my area, the George Town area in particular. Throughout that area many of the people who are in my electorate are and work within the forestry industry in some way or another. So there are many families who will be impacted on, as the members for Apsley and Murchison and, I think, all speakers have raised this morning. A number have been in contact with me, saying, 'We do not know what we are going to do. We do not know how we are going to live into the future. We have to find some other employment and that is not easy in the current environment.' It really is not and that is why I challenged the Government with the 15 000 new employment positions that they are going to create over the next four-year period. Unless things change drastically, we are going to be in trouble.

I wanted to say that I just cannot understand why people in this State, who love the State, who live in this State, would want to drive a car around with a sticker on it about corruption in this State. I just cannot understand why. I spoke to a person recently who had a sticker on their car and said, 'Why would you want to do that to your State? Why would you want to promote that?' It is beyond my comprehension to think that a person who lived in Tasmania all their life would want to do that. I thought you would want to promote it in the best way that you possible can.

Mr Wilkinson - What was the answer?

Mr DEAN - The answer was that they were caught up with the hype of what was going on and they were influenced - and that is another comment they made - to put this sticker on. I said should they now get rid of it and they indicated that they would and I will check their vehicles later on.

Mr Wilkinson - It is a bit like a lynch-mob mentality, isn't it?

[2.45 p.m.]
Mr DEAN - It is, absolutely, and it just concerns me.

Mr Hall - The interesting question is, now that they are part of the Government, are they going to take off those stickers or are they going to leave them on?

Mr DEAN - You are absolutely right. There is one member whom we know who sits in the lower House and who has some of those stickers on his car, or did have. I will check that vehicle as well. I will be interested to see if they are removed.

Ms Forrest - A police check.

Mr DEAN - Yes, a police check.

Mr Hall - Old habits die hard!

Members laughing.

Madam PRESIDENT - If we could move back to the debate, it would be appreciated.

Mr DEAN - This matter is important, Madam President, and when I listened to Senator Brown the other day talking about their position in relation to the harvesting of native forests for timber, et cetera, it really did worry me. I have had a number of calls and I am sure that other members have as well wherever people are employed in this industry. People have been contacting me, asking what is going on and saying that this will destroy the timber industry. It will go a long way to destroying it. There are some private areas, of course, but this will go a big way if it ever gets up - and I can see it never getting up - and I would hope that that is the case.

I have a history in the timber industry. My father was a timber miller and logger all his life up until the day he died. In fact, I still have an interest myself so I know a little bit about the timber industry. I know some of the issues concerning it, some of the logging problems and issues and so on and my son has asked me to log his property currently.

Ms Forrest - Have you got the appropriate safety gear?

Mr DEAN - I do have some background in it and I am extremely interested in where we are going into the future in relation to this matter.

There is another matter that I did refer to and I will not go over what has already been said. I have not had time to read through this document. I tried to get it at lunchtime and I just walked into the Chamber a few moments ago. That is the interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast on 11 June 2010 with reporter Tony Jones. It was an interview with Geoffrey Cousins and we all know who Geoffrey Cousins is.

This is one of the comments he made to a question put to him by Tony Jones:

'I think it is fair to say that the radical changes inside Gunns were the result of a boardroom coup.'

Tony Jones then asked:

'Tell us how it was engineered.'

I quote from Geoffrey Cousins' answer:

'We put pressure on the customers. We put pressure on the shareholders, finally. But also what we did was to engineer a story in the Australian newspaper that suggested there was an upside for shareholders - because you have got to offer something as well, you cannot just present the negatives in cases like this.'

They certainly engineered some stories and there is no doubt about that.

Another question asked by Tony Jones was:

'So a critical meeting was put together? Who was in it?'

Geoffrey Cousins answered:

'It was, yes. It was an extraordinary meeting actually - a meeting that I never thought would take place. We had representatives of Perpetual, the biggest shareholder, we had senior people from the Wilderness Society and myself there and … '

He then goes on:

'Unbelievably, we actually put on the table a map of the high conservation areas in Tasmania that had been under dispute for decades. You know, people up trees, lawsuits, goodness knows what. Put them on the table and said "Now look, do you really believe if this company stopped logging these areas it would have any significant impact on the share price?"

And the Perpetual people said, "Not a cent". So all of that angst and drama had taken place because of the intransigence of the board of that company and particularly of course of the person who led it, John Gay.'

Some of these maps that they put on were probably the maps that other members have spoken to today. I would suggest that they are flawed. I would be very surprised if that were not the case here as well. What was accurate there and what was not we do not know. As I said, I do not have time to go through the rest of the interview but there are some other interesting issues in there.

Mr Wilkinson - But the answer itself doesn't really make sense, if you read it.

Mr DEAN - No, it does not and I am just reading this now. I have just picked a couple of paragraphs; that is all I have had a chance to do. I would ask the member to get that interview and read through it. I will provide a copy of it to him if he cannot access it readily. I feel sorry for John Gay who has done so much for forestry and the timber industry in this State, in my opinion. He has been played more than a ball is played in a football game; they continue to play the man and not the ball, unfortunately, with what he has done and where he has gone. I propose to bring into this Chamber at a later time a matter relative to Mr Gay.

I will certainly be supporting this urgency motion. It is an important issue and will impact on every Tasmanian. It needs to be straightened up. I made a couple of comments by way of interjection about the conference that is going to take place. I have some concerns as to whether or not that will be beneficial because this has all been tried previously. There have been discussions on this for a long time and there has not been a lot of headway made in relation to it. I cannot see what has significantly changed of recent times for that to be altered in any way. I hope it would but I would be very surprised if that were the case, unfortunately, because there is that very radical group out there, that group that will not listen or take notice of anything at all. The scientific evidence has been produced and reports have been done by all these independent people with no real interest, other than the fact that they are asked to do the reports and to look at the issues. They have had little impact, if any, on those people.

Mr Wilkinson - They have their own professional reputation at stake as well, which people seem to forget.

Mr DEAN - You are absolutely right. When this is over, what are they then going to have to go on to and move into? This is a very big issue and they want to keep it alive as long as they possibly can, but I would not support an urgency motion.

Mr PARKINSON (Hobart - Leader of Government Business in the Legislative Council) - Madam President, I move -

That the debate be adjourned.