Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I note that this is a very, very sensitive issue, and it is really disappointing that the Greens seek to misrepresent what has occurred in Tasmania through the wording of this motion. I know that it is something that the Greens tend to do on a regular basis. I just want to put on the record what has occurred in Tasmania. I will read from the document that Senator Brown refers to, which is headed ‘Tasmanian forests statement of principles to lead to an agreement’. While the Greens might like to portray what has occurred in Tasmania as an agreement, there is no agreement at this point in time. There have been some negotiations, and one thing that the parties to those negotiations have said is that they would like to keep politics out of the process.

The opposition has respected the process. We have met with both sides of the discussion. We have met with the ENGOs and have spoken to contractors and industry organisations who are party to the agreement, and we have continued to keep in touch. In fact, we cautiously welcomed the agreement when it came out, although we did point out some inconsistencies. There are a number of inconsistencies in the agreement. Sorry, I should not refer to it as an ‘agreement’; it is a ‘statement of principles to lead to an agreement’. We support that process. We have stayed alongside that process—as I said, we cautiously welcomed that process—but we do not seek to represent it for something that it isn’t. I think that is extremely important. There are a lot of sensitivities around the discussions. There are a lot of different interpretations of clauses within the document. It is not that the opposition do not support the process, but we will not be supporting Senator Brown’s motion. (Time expired)