I took a day to tour the softwoods plantation on Friday, where I met Softwoods Working Group chair Peter Crowe and Visy forest operations manager Rodney Anderson.

I have to say it was quite an eye-opening excursion and I can see why we need to ensure investment into the timber industry at Tumut continues.

Contributing to an incredibly high-demand industry, timber is providing jobs to hundreds of residents and injecting hundreds of thousands of dollars into the community.

I would like to thank Peter and Rodney for their time and I look forward to liaising with you both in the future.