We need a proper Constitution to give power back to the people.This top down Socialist Govt is taking away too many of our freedoms with over regulation.People can look after the environment under a true democracy without all this crazy Govt regulation that takes away the people's rights while letting large Corps do as they please.

So much farm land is being shut down under the lie of AGW that we may soon not be able to feed ourselves.Fracking is destroying the water table and and good productive soils and the Communist Green Movement is virtually silent.

As the Coalition supports in-principle the prohibition of illegally logged timber, I expect the legislation will eventually be passed, which would probably be a good result, as it would put pressure on the country of origin to better control their logging. Presumably the illegal logging is illegal because the logging contractors are not paying royalty to the government and/or are harvesting trees in prohibited areas and/or not regenerating the logged areas.

However I can see that the task of preventing such logging is primarily that of the country of origin. Australia has no jurisdiction over what happens in the forests of another country. We could however offer assistance by way of forestry experts who may be able to advise their overseas counterparts in better ways to control timber harvesting. Of course if a country, accused of illegal logging, does not admit that it is happening, they would not accept that they need assistance!

Determination of what logs or timber are in fact 'illegal' is likely to be one of the most difficult issues in implementing the proposed legislation, as such material does not arrive on a ship stamped 'illegal'!

A related issue is that there is a strong demand in Australia for imported timber, particularly from tropical forests. This is partly due to large areas of Australia's productive native forests (over the last 30-40 years) being put into conservation reserves in which tree harvesting is illegal. One unfortunate result of this is that we have to import even larger quantities of raw timber and timber products and this demand is often met by countries where control of logging and regeneration is well below Australia's own forestry standards.

Messmate has just mentioned just a few of the complexities of tackling this issue.

The current governments approach to this and so many other issues is the 'thought bubble' approach! Cases in point include the 'live export ban', the 'Malasian' solution to people smuggling, 'send em to East Timor approach. Etc etc.

where is the productivity commission recommendations for the NBN thought bubble?

When did it heed the recommendations of its own departments during the 'Australia Network' fiasco?

Australia increasingly becomes an investment opportunity of 'last resort' due to the sovereign risk inherent in dealing with this government!

The only recent decision of merit that I have seen with regard to matters affecting foreign affairs was the occasion when they heeded the advice of its own department (ASIO) in limiting Chinese investment in the NBN.

Of course, as stated by Messmate, the coalition is concerned with illegal logging, but it seems to insist that it be an effective, well thought out, 'clever' approach to the problem, not a greens inspired knee jerk that damages our relationships with our long suffering neighbors.

Again regarding Messmate's comment regarding the strong demand for imported timber. The law of unintended consequences completely eludes the current governments thought processes.

Arjay you are right about the need for a new constitution, I too am concerned about giving the power back to the people and suggest that the Swiss constitution is a good starting point, look it up on google. But hang on, "power back to the people" isn’t that a bit too socialist. And Arjay please don’t praise the Greens and Labour with accusations of being Communist or Socialist, they follow the same free market mantra that Hawke, Keating and Howard progressively established. The simple fact is that when we caste our vote, we effectively give power to a democratic dictatorship. And yes, Julie Bishop is doing her best at "spinning" the top, pity for her that we can all see through it.