ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - ADJOURNMENT - Hyne Timber

In the black summer of 2019-20, the bushfires destroyed 40 per cent of the Hyne Timber mill pine feedstock. Now, for many companies, they might just pack up and leave, but not Hyne. This company was established in 1882. It's one of Australia's largest softwood manufacturing companies. It has a commitment to the Tumbarumba region that is second to none. I commend the company. It employs more than a thousand people at the Tumbarumba sawmill.

Last Tuesday, the Hyne company opened its new 4,700-square-metre storage facility. That's going to enable the timber that was once sitting out in the open, getting weathered, to be under cover. This is going to help prosperity. It's going to help productivity—and I say bravo to this company. Its CEO, Jim Bindon, was there. The newly elected mayor of Snowy Valleys, Julia Ham, was present last Tuesday at the very auspicious opening, as was the executive officer of the Softwoods Working Group, Carlie Porteous, who also serves as the Murray region forestry group's hub manager. You could see the excitement in the eyes of the employees, because they knew that this was securing their future. But, more than that, it secures Tumbarumba's future and the area around Tumbarumba—indeed, you could argue, the council local government area—where 70 per cent of its gross product, its gross shire product, is underpinned by timber.

I know timber is a dirty word in Victoria amongst some of our Labor colleagues. But I have to say that the former coalition government implemented the Forestry Recovery Development Fund Program. I also want to put on record that the work with the timber industry by the former member for Hunter, Joel Fitzgibbon, has been fantastic. It has been amazing, and I commend him for that. But, under this fund—as well as from the former New South Wales government—Hyne Timber was successful in securing finance to help optimise the mill for improved efficiency, with fewer logs. It built this storage facility. It's going to help protect the timber that's been kiln-dried from the weather before it is planed in the dry mill to build the next generation's new homes. And we need new homes. If we're going to keep increasing the population with the migrants coming in, with their numbers at present, we are going to need to build new homes, and governments have to get around this thought about timber. Indeed, it's a great sink for our future. A great clean, green, environmental outcome is actually having timber in your homes. You can't build them all out of steel, particularly with the price of power at the moment.

This new storage facility is going to make such a difference. Throughout its construction, 30 local jobs were created and more than $5 million was injected into the region's economy. That might not sound like much to people in here when we talk about billions of dollars for infrastructure upgrades and projects and programs, but I tell you what: for a community the size of Tumbarumba, it means everything.

Hyne contracted Joss Group of Albury to complete the project. It's just down the road. It's a good local company. Hyne has a long-lasting and clearly demonstrated history of investing in the local community. I can remember one of my very first visits as the National Party candidate, and then as the National Party member for Riverina. I was taken to Hyne. I went there with no less than Warren Truss, a former member for Wide Bay. I know that Hyne's got a big financial commitment in that electorate as well.

But Hyne established the Hyne Community Trust too, and I just want to talk about that. It was established in 2007. Nearly $800,000 has been distributed to community groups and good causes in the Tumbarumba region from this charitable trust that this great company has put forward.

So well done to Mr Bindon and well done to Hyne Timber. Like I said, it has been going since 1882. It's had a commitment to the Tumbarumba sawmill since 2001. It provides good charity. It provides good jobs. It provides a good future for Tumbarumba. I say: well done to Hyne, and may your new storage shed bring about every success that you planned it to have.