John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation. Does the minister recall defending the current arrangements for managed investment schemes on the basis that they revitalise rural communities, create jobs and encourage tree plantations as an alternative to logging old-growth forests? Can the minister now confirm that, despite his claims, the government plans to restrict the use of these schemes in the future? Won’t this action, on the minister’s own logic, threaten rural communities, cause job losses and stifle plantation forests as an alternative to old-growth logging? Can the minister also explain why he has not been able to counter what he described on 29 August as ‘the silly and emotive argument being used by some opposed to tree farms’? Why is the government more receptive to ‘silly and emotive’ arguments about tree farms than to the minister’s view about their benefits?