Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

No, in fact I am reading a very good note from Senator Ian Macdonald, who is suggesting to me—and I will make this suggestion—that we are happy to debate the Greens in relation to these matters at any time in this place. What the Greens are promoting for and on behalf of their donor, the biggest donor ever in Australian history—$1.6 million—is the lock-up of 500,000 hectares of Tasmania. They want to lock up not only its forest values, but its mineral values and its tourism values. These are to be denied to future generations for the mere sum of $270 million. Work out what that is per hectare. Where else could you buy land at that price—just the land value, not even including the timber wealth, the mineral wealth and the tourism wealth and potential? That is why Senator Doug Cameron's union in Tasmania, the AMWU, and the Australian Workers Union are in lockstep with the coalition on this—and it is very rare for them to be in lockstep with us—because the workers of Tasmania know, the contractors of Tasmania know—

Senator Cameron interjecting—

When Senator Cameron and I are in heated agreement, it must be a rare day and the stars must be aligned. I am not sure, though, that Senator Cameron still looks after the workers' interests as he used to. But that is a debate for another day.

We are a country with a lot of land—millions of hectares. We have a lot of land with a lot of timber and the Greens continually want to lock it up. It is a good natural resource—renewable, recyclable and biodegradable. The Greens say, 'Do not harvest our own.' But do we still need wood products? Of course we do. Where do they come from? As Senator Colbeck said, they come from the Solomon Islands, from Indonesia, from South-East Asia. Because of Greens policies, we have seen a 50 per cent increase in those sorts of imports while they try to close down our industry. It is not economic sense; it is not environmental sense.