Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. The Labor Party have successfully distracted me and the chamber from what is a very, very important issue, and that is the way in which this environment minister is managing the environment. As I was saying when I was interrupted, Senator Siewert has said in much more eloquent terms than I that everything about this Caring for our Country program has been difficult, if not downright dangerous or downright useless, for the environment and for the work done by these natural resource management groups.

The statement by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts says that rorting under the NHT program was rife because in some unfortunate cases people claimed funding but failed to do the work. Talk about taking points of order calling the minister a disgrace; here is the minister accusing many ordinary Australians, who give up their time voluntarily to look after the environment and our country, of rorting. The statement by the minister goes on to say that these communities were swimming against the tide of rorting, political manipulation and mismanagement.

I do not expect Senator Carr would ever have been out in the bush, let alone anywhere near an environment group, but Mr Garrett should go out and talk to some of these people and see the absolutely fantastic work they have done and the people that they employ. I often talk about the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group, a great group based in Georgetown, a small country community in the Gulf of Carpentaria region. These people, with the money the Howard government gave them, have built up a number of technical staff in that community that go out doing the work that the Queensland government used to do before the Labor government slashed its DPI program. They do some fantastic work. They have brought people to the community and have searched over the last three or four years to get a good team together, and then Mr Garrett comes along and slashes the funding for their group and for every other group by 40 per cent. People are worried about their jobs. Talk about working families! Mr Garrett and Senator Carr should go and talk to some of the families of these people who have been working in natural resource management groups for years but who now find themselves without a job or feeling uncertain as to where they are going. All this expertise that has been built up in NRM groups over the last three to four years has been cast asunder by this insensitive and quite stupid decision of this environment minister.

Mr Garrett talks about the ANAO. I never have a great deal of time for the ANAO. I remember their comments on Centenary House—and, of course, they were the main paying tenant—and so at times I think that others are as well able to make assessments. It is a bit like the Regional Partnerships program where, according to the ANAO, two or three programs were badly funded—and I think they were. But that does not stop the Labor Party, as they are doing here, from lumbering every honest, hardworking citizen who is involved in these groups with claims of rorting or not properly spending the money.

Senator Siewert is absolutely correct in outlining the problems that these decisions will create. The money has been cut. It has been diverted from country areas and areas that really cared for our country into city areas—and you can rest assured that that is going to continue. Across the board it is quite clear that the Labor government have no interest in the environment and will rort and remove funds from these programs to further their other philosophical focuses. This statement out of the blue certainly says little of interest to anyone, but it does highlight what very poor management of and interest in the environment this particular minister has. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.