August 4, 2010 NATIONALS leader Warren Truss says managed investment schemes have "worked very well" in the forestry sector.
And the Nationals will not argue for MISs to be abolished even if the coalition wins the election.
His comments have drawn stinging criticism from economist and Sustainable Agricultural Communities Australia director Robert Belcher.
Industry analysts estimate some 500,000 hectares owned by collapsed forestry MIS companies will have been sold off cheap to overseas interests by the end of 2011.
"What planet is Warren Truss on?" Mr Belcher asked.He mustnt be touring - by selective choice - some pretty big regional areas."
Speaking at the National Press Club lunch in Canberra today, Mr Truss said the MISs had made "constructive contributions to regional economies".
In some regional economies though, they had caused "concern".
Mr Truss did not say the Nationals would argue to have MISs abolished.
"I think there should be changes in the arrangement but there are also MIS that have worked very well, particularly in the forestry sector," Mr Truss said.
But Mr Belcher said MIS had been introduced into forestry to "expand and enhance" the sawlog industry but had achieved the opposite, increasing the production of pulp for paper while those in the sawlog industry their jobs.
Almost 100 per cent of MIS plantations in Australia are planted for pulp, he said.
"Theres a big difference between a lobby group in Canberra (arguing for MISs for plantation forestry) and the real people in the timber industry who are in real danger because of all this," Mr Belcher said.
"MIS got rid of so many of them (real people) anyway, because they were sawloggers, they werent pulpers."
Victorian Farmers Federation Sunraysia branch MIS spokesman Bill McClumpha said the Nationals failed to represent the views of "any farmers who think about it" on MIS.
"MIS has been a screaming failure and has cost taxpayers billions," Mr McClumpha said.
Speaking to The Weekly Times earlier this week, Nationals senate leader Barnaby Joyce also said MISs "can have a role" in areas that did not have developed agricultural markets, including north-west Western Australia.
However he also said the schemes had "caused massive problems" in some areas.
Mr Belcher said it was "obvious Barnaby Joyce does most of the leadership role for the Nats".
Asked if he personally had a recognition problem, Mr Truss did not answer directly.
He said Senator Joyce had a knack of translating complex issues into simple terms that could be used "around the kitchen table" and "in the pub" and that he was happy to work with him.
Mr Truss made no policy announcement at the lunch, but criticised Labor on debt and the emissions trading scheme.
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