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

I want to follow up on that. I still would like to know how you came up with a figure of 80,500 hectares or thereabouts to be in the ground by 2011. What is the basis for suddenly magicking up that figure for being what you expect to be taken up and there being a $24 million tag attached to it? I would like some detail as to how that came about. Secondly, I would like some clarity around the disallowable instrument. From what I can see, as I have said before many times, the climate minister must by legislative instrument make guidelines about the environmental and resource management in relation to carbon sink forest. These guidelines will be a disallowable instrument. The establishment of the trees must satisfy these guidelines in order for the relevant expenses to be claimed as a tax deduction. Can you clarify for me, Minister, that this will not come into effect until these guidelines or this instrument come through the Senate, in which case they can be disallowed? In that case, nobody can go out and start this process until those guidelines come through here in order to be ratified. I need to understand that, because that will tie up one big rort with this. There will be no loophole between times. Since it says here clearly that the establishment of these trees must satisfy these guidelines in order for the relevant expenses to be claimed as a tax deduction, until we have the guidelines one would assume you could not qualify. I want to have clarity that this will not come into effect until that disallowable instrument comes before the Senate. Secondly, I would like more detail about how you magicked up 18,500 hectares by 2011.