Mr. Colm Hayes:

The licensing system that we manage and administer was knocked back on its hind legs in 2019 by a series of court judgments. I struggle to see how any planning system, no matter how well designed or resourced, could have recovered in the intervening period. As to whether we could have done it faster or put in more resources, these are all arguable questions. I am not saying that it is not the case, what I am saying is that the system has, unquestionably, improved, particularly since last October. The new resources are coming on stream. We are a forward looking organisation when it comes to this. This year is about framing a new national forestry strategy. Senator Lombard mentioned the key word, namely, "confidence". We want to put confidence back into the sector. We would like to think that the last few months have started to put a bit of that confidence back in. We know that we have a long way to go, but nobody is more committed than this Department, right down through the forestry system, including the Ministers, who are engaging intensively with stakeholders, as are we. It is all shoulders to the wheel to get this right. I would like to think that the past few months have shown what is possible and what we can drive it on to achieve on the next level.