Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 2:28:19 to 2:33:08
The department discusses the impact of imports on domestic timber processing capacity and the role of the Forestry Growth Fund in supporting the industry.
Topics: Forestry, Manufacturing, Government spending
Speakers: Speaker 12, Speaker 14, Speaker 4, Speaker 25
So, so we haven't undertaken any particular analysis at this stage on on I guess the impact direct impact of imports but it'd be worth noting we did release a paper which looked at the role that imports play in the domestic industry and how that's played out in terms of also our own supply and so forth and one of the key observations with that was that you know in these times where we get you know spurs in our housing activity and so forth that access to international markets is a good stabilizer to help moder moderate price increases particularly increasing building costs and the like. Um for our industry you know long-term competitive pressure is good for consumers. Um so if we have the international competitive pressure it helps to maintain a competitive supply of of wood products into our markets and the like. Um and we do have continuing most of the the wood products used in in housing and so forth still come from domestic sources. So that's a very high level doesn't directly answer your question but um it gives you I guess a bit of a high level
picture. >> Yeah but but just to confirm no you haven't done any particular study or modeling on >> on the impact what um has that question been considered like have you thought about doing that or
>> um we haven't got that in our work program at at this point. Um we do kind of keep an eye on how the wood market's going, you know, particularly and also the changes in plantation estate and harvesting and the like. And so we do that regular reporting which will be reporting like an outlook for the forestry sector in March as part of our updates. But there's no specific piece of work that's that's been that's in the
pipeline. >> Similar to the question I was asking in relation to to fishing, um what what consideration does the department have on sustainability? uh of the source of these of these products uh and also I want to understand uh what what works done around quality and assurance around quality of the products compared to Australian u manufactured products
there there's certainly a regulatory scheme around um uh illegal illegal logging um which my colleague Mr. Bil could talk to in more detail and if you wanted to dive into kind of the broader question as well.
>> Sure. >> Uh Senator Guy Bilal, assistant secretary abeck chemicals and forestry. The uh the principal uh control of the Australian government has on imports is our legal logging prohibition act uh which is the framework that Australia uses uh and it puts the the impost on importers to assess the legality of timber products coming into Australia um across a number of it's a sort of inclusive definition of legality which captures concepts like sustainability
>> and what assurance is over that or are they just marking their own homework or
like what what do you >> uh No, the department runs a as with all of our regulatory activities, we have ordinate assurance processes that uh specifically look at um importers requirements under the illegal locking
prohibition act. >> Um what's the department's assessment of the trend in domestic timber mill closures or the reduced capacity utilization in the in recent years?
Um what's our assessment? Well, I guess um broadly we're conscious that um there's been the I guess public withdrawal for of Victoria of native forest logging um which has had flow on effects to um timber processing. Um but more broadly, I guess what we'd what we'd look at and what our interest is is to continue to ensure that these um industries remain vibrant um and are continuing to grow and uh to ensure that um that those industries have the opportunity to increase I guess the technology and the valuating that is being undertaken. And to your point, Senator, around um around those imports um of LDL and uh and those sorts of I guess engineered wood products, >> we do think that there's a significant opportunity for Australian >> yes >> um industries here. Um the government announced $300 million forestry growth fund. Um a significant focus of that fund will be as stated in in in the government's um announcement is around supporting the development of engineered wood products industries as well.