The Hon. ROBERT BROWN [6.09 p.m.]: Sometimes we in this Chamber do not get to see the impact of decisions made by government and by members of this House. So it was a sobering experience yesterday to sit with representatives of the small communities affected by the River Red Gums lockup decision and to hear their stories. The representatives attended a crossbench briefing to put their case for a reversal of the Government's decision to lock up more than 100,000 hectares of Riverina forests, a decision made in the mistaken belief that it was in the interests of conservation. That is a joke, but it is a sick joke. The saddest part is that these folk genuinely believed the proposal could be voted down in the upper House and that the decision was not a final one.

When legislation reflecting that Government decision passes through the lower House and this House, communities in that area will be decimated. The four people who came to talk to the crossbenchers spoke of entire small towns disappearing: the shutdown of the logging industry will leave them with nothing and nowhere to go. It is not often that grown men who have worked in a tough industry like the logging industry are crying—but that is what happened. These are proud, hardworking people from small communities. They feel helpless, they feel abandoned and, worst of all, they do not understand why they are being treated in this way. They know that they are best placed to protect these forests—not some city-based, placard-carrying, so-called greenie. They do not understand the workings of politics, which seems to be about getting power and running the world from Sydney, and nothing else matters. Indeed, they do not really want to understand and nor should they need to understand. They simply want to get on with their work and their life in their small towns.

As one person put it, they now find they are "Road kill on the way to the State election". I find that expression of sheer abandonment to be anathema to the Australian way of life as we have known it, and I am embarrassed. I am embarrassed because these communities will suffer. They need help and they need it quickly. They cannot eat dates off a calendar. They need financial support and in far greater quantities than the pittance offered by the Government—probably to the tune of an additional $30 million. They need hope: hope that their communities will not disappear, hope they will not have to move away, family by family, to try to find work elsewhere and start all over again. One of the men, a 47-year-old indigenous worker, said to us, "What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? The rice mill is closed; the abattoir is closed. What am I going to do?" Governments are supposed to look after the communities they govern.

I implore the Premier not to ignore these people. I appeal to the Government to offer them more than empty platitudes. I appeal to the Government to assist them to transition from their current way of life and work—even though they do not want to—to achieve whatever they can for themselves in the future. Hearing these people speak was not a comfortable experience. It was less so because as an individual in this place I could really do nothing to help them except to appeal to the Government. If that is all I can do, I will do my best. I hope the Government hears what I have said. People in these communities deserve better treatment. There must come a time when blind ideology takes a back seat to the real functioning of the world. Even the most rabid greenie would have to feel sorry for the delegation we met. If these rabid city-based greenies cannot feel sorrow and guilt over this type of decision—which they drove right behind the Government—that is an indictment on their humanity.