“I would see Eden as being a much more attractive town for tourists and residents,” she said when asked her vision for the town should the timber industry here fold.

“I don’t see any economic harm to it as a result of that,” Ms Swift said on Tuesday.

“You just need to look at other parts of Australia and other parts of the world where they’ve given up native forest logging.

“Towns like Pemberton in Western Australia have given up chipping and just never looked back.”

“In New Zealand, they did it 10 years ago there and the areas where native forests have been the strongest there have boomed since then. Unemployment has fallen and the economy has boomed.”

However, Liberal MP Andrew Constance questioned the relevance of what happened in New Zealand and said that when primary industry had closed, there had been no evidence of improved employment in those areas.

“For 20 years the Harriett Swifts have said that all these eco-tourism jobs would be forthcoming, but in those areas that have lost industry the jobs have not been forthcoming,” he said.

However, Mr Constance conceded that the Eden community couldn’t just rely on timber and diversification was needed to ensure growth.

“It is a fragile local economy that is too dependent on a small number of industries and we need to broaden that economy,” he said.

“That’s why it’s vital the commercial wharf be extended, it’s vital the department of lands look at what opportunities there are in terms of development opportunities in Eden, it’s about job creation, it’s about incentives for people to move out of cities and to the regions, which is why we announced the kick start package, it’s about improving the infrastructure, about improving the Princes Highway and fixing the (Merimbula) airport.”

However, Ms Swift was adamant that Eden can grow without native forest logging in the region and that the government should be looking at transition packages to get people out of timber mills.

“There are a whole lot of new industries that have futures and The Greens would like to see retraining packages for people and they’d have a lot of choice about what they did,” she said.