Mr DEAN (Windermere) - Madam President, I will keep it short and I do not want to go back over what everybody else has spoken about. It does not leave me a lot to talk about so I will stick to speaking about a family who are involved in logging. I want to read into Hansard a letter that they have provided me. I was looking at my iPad a moment ago and it was talking about the logging industry and the management of forests in New Zealand. Where they are locking up their public forests and not managing them properly it is putting a huge amount of pressure back on private forests. In a lot of respects it is destroying a lot of the private forests that are still in existence in New Zealand. Similar sorts of things could occur here too I would think if we are not careful.

Selective logging has been in place in Tasmania ever since European settlement. There were not too many Tasmanians who did not support selective logging. My father was a selective logger and involved in a timber mill all his life. They logged with the cross-cut saw and two-man chainsaw and then they had the single-person chainsaw and that is how they logged. If you went back through those forests now it would be pretty difficult to see where they had been. You might see a few dried stumps here and there. It can be done and it can be done properly.

The clear-felling is an issue and I often have had concerns about that and raised the issue with forestry. They have always put up a number of reasons for doing it, one of which was safety. The old logger was able to log selectively and successfully with very few bush accidents.

When this motion was identified I spoke to a number of people involved in the logging and milling industry. One family said that they would like to write about their position, how it relates to them now and what they are going through.

I have indicated to them that I would read that into Hansard. It reads:

'To whom it may concern

'I am the third generation in my family to be involved in the logging industry in Tasmania, with both my father and grandfather saw log harvesters and saw mill operators/owners.

My wife Elizabeth and I formed our own company, Saunders Logging Pty Ltd, in 1973. During this 37 years we have witnessed many changes in the industry. One thing that has not changed however is the sustainability of native forest logging. Native forest logging has been active in our state for well over 100 years and with the increased awareness for the environment, the rigid guidelines that must be followed and the fact that logging contractors are today more accountable than ever, there is no reason that it should not continue for the next 100 years.

Strict practices are enforced to ensure that the Forest Practice code is adhered to and effective selective logging plans are managed on a coupe by coupe basis.

Saw logs are a large part of native forest logging. Saunders Logging is a saw log orientated company and we strive to cut maximum volume of saw log and other species rather than producing purely chip. I fear that if native forest logging is discontinued that we will not be alone in suffering the consequences. The consequences will be detrimental to Tasmania as a whole and the ripple effect that it will have on our country communities will be catastrophic!'

I heard the member for Western Tiers use the word catastrophic earlier on in his speech.

'My wife and I employ 12 people. We are a family orientated business, employing our son, daughter, son in law, my brother and his son. We are lucky enough to be able to provide employment for our family and therefore keep them in our state, instead of the ever growing trend of young people heading to the mainland to find job opportunities.

I can not understand how any Government would cease such a sustainable practice that is so beneficial to our state. Is it for any other reason than simply complying with the requests of the Greens.

Your sincerely

Nigel R Saunders'.

Mr Parkinson - A good name for a logger.

Mr DEAN - It is. I think somebody mentioned the fear thing about people talking about locking up native forests altogether and I think it was the member for Rosevears raised the issue and it is a good point that he made.

Madam President, what Mr Saunders did not go on to say was that he has a lot of money tied up in this business and any interference to that business means that people will lose their employment. It means that he will lose and have to sell off equipment and machinery and there are huge costs involved with that as well.

Ms Rattray - Through you, Madam President - the issue with selling off the machinery is that it is not worth anything because the industry just does not want it any longer, there is no need for it.

Mr DEAN - No, it is not worth anything and I think the people coming from your area, the Gerkes -

Ms Rattray - Kelly Gerke is having exactly that issue.

Mr DEAN - That is right. They have had a big sell-off of machinery lately and it would be interesting to see what they did get for it but I would think it would be -

Ms Rattray - Not much.

Mr DEAN - very limited. So it does impact tremendously on people.

There are a lot of these people saying that we do not really need a timber industry in this State, but how they can say that really makes you wonder. It just shows you how insular they are. They were saying that we can go to tourism. They are saying that we do not need this, tourism employs more people, we have tourism in this State, tourism will hold us up and tourism will move us forward into the future. I wonder what they are saying now with tourism not going so well at the present time. A lot of people involved in the tourist industry are now saying that they are suffering. There are people involved who are saying that they are having to close down their businesses. There are people with B&Bs who are suffering as well and that is generally happening throughout the tourism industry at the present time. We cannot and should never put all our eggs in the one basket and it is very evident at the present time so I would hope that those people are starting to look at that and think about it as well.

Mr Hall - Through you, Madam President - former Premier, Jim Bacon, always said that. To put all our eggs in one basket in an economy predicated just on tourism would be a very dim economy indeed.

Mr DEAN - Yes. It is very important that we have a number of industries and big industries in this State that we can work with and can ensure will continue into the long term. The Government under no circumstances can weaken on this. I know that there would be pressures within the Government, unfortunately, at the present time for considerable change to be made but I was pleased to hear the Leader when he spoke on this matter and said that the Labor Party has a very strong position. I am not so sure about the current Government but we will see what happens, I guess, into the future.

So, Madam President, I will certainly support the motion.