Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate Senator Milne for that defence of this nation’s and the world’s heritage forests which are being ripped apart, with the wildlife in them, by this Prime Minister, this Minister for the Environment and Heritage, this Minister for Climate Change and Water, and the cabinet here on Capital Hill in conjunction with their Labor colleagues in the parliament in Salamanca Place in Hobart. Shame on the whole lot of them that it has to take sterling citizens like those arrested on the weekend and arrested previous to that to make a stand for this planet and its future and for the wildlife and biodiversity that come with these ancient forests—which have never seen a chainsaw or an axe before but which are being ripped apart under the fiat of Prime Minister Rudd. It is the regional forest agreement, and the blinkers he puts on when he endorses that, which has allowed this travesty in our nation—which Senator Milne so well outlined in such an incredibly short time.

This is a hallmark of a government that does not understand where the planet is. It does not understand its obligations to this nation’s heritage. It does not understand its obligations to rare and endangered species, being driven closer to extinction by the madness of export woodchipping and the fire-bombing with napalm occurring at the moment, in autumn, in Tasmania—putting all that carbon in the atmosphere to further disrupt the ability of human beings to live on this planet, let alone to have the variety of nature with us and to bequeath on to our grandchildren. It is abhorrent behaviour, culpable behaviour, by the politicians who endorse it—politicians on both sides of this chamber, on both sides of politics, and in the big parties in mainland Australia and in Tasmania.