How can it be an environmentally, or indeed ethically, defensible position to cross our arms and simply import greater and greater volumes of product from far-flung corners of the globe because we aren’t growing sufficient of our own timber on shore?
Chief Executive Officer of AFPA, Mr Ross Hampton said, "The world needs much more, not less, of this sustainable, renewable and truly green resource. And it needs more of it from Australia.” AFPA is also placing advertisements in regional newspapers in key plantation areas such as the Green Triangle in South Australia and Victoria, central tablelands and southern NSW, south east Queensland, and southwest WA.
Mr Hampton said, “Although we have just experienced a record boom in construction, much of the growth has been filled by sawn softwood from as far afield as Europe. This is, in part, because we aren't providing sufficient plantation resource in this country for our domestic sawmills. AFPA will be shortly releasing a comprehensive new policy solution to this crisis."