Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The minister says that I am wrong. Let the minister assess this. Why are you so afraid to have the greenhouse gas emissions from the Gunns pulp mill assessed? As for the misrepresentation here, let me say that I was shocked today to hear Senator Minchin say that China has not signed or ratified the Kyoto protocol. What level of ignorance is that? In fact, the Chinese government signed the Kyoto protocol in May 1998 and it was ratified by China on 30 August 2002. The government goes round saying that China has done nothing and that China is not included, but they cannot even get their basic facts right. China has not only ratified the Kyoto protocol but is benefiting enormously from investment under the clean development mechanism in the Kyoto protocol.

Further to that, we have Senator Abetz telling us that the IPCC agrees with the government, when in fact Dr Pauchauri has said:

Nothing that I said in my telephone interview with Mr Matthew Warren implied or even remotely conveyed that I supported or opposed the Australian Government’s policies on climate change.

In a letter to me, he went on to say: ‘It is not for me to comment on the climate change policy of any country and I’ve been scrupulously careful in maintaining this stance. What was clearly a distortion was the publication by the Australian of my views as an endorsement of the Australian government.’ So I hope that the government is now going to desist from misrepresenting the Chairman of the IPCC.

Let us hear from the government. Will you now have the emissions from the pulp mill and the logging assessed? If not, why not? Why are you so intent on protecting Gunns and making a lie of any suggestion that you are serious about climate change? Obviously, you are not serious about climate change. You are prepared to drive climate change with emissions from logging for this pulp mill in Tasmania. If you say that it is not 10 million tonnes every year, what is it? (Time expired)

Question agreed to.