Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. This saw contortions whereby Senator Brown and the Greens opposed Gunns getting any money from the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement when Gunns were negotiating to sell their woodchip mill to the Aprin logging consortium. But, inexplicably, they did not oppose Gunns getting money when they sold the mill to Wood. For 10 days Senator Brown railed against Forestry Tasmania receiving money from the IGA as settlement of its claim against Gunns, only to change his criticism after Gunns reached a settlement with the Tasmanian government which involved $11.5 million being paid to Forestry Tasmania.

Significantly, the committee states that my submission only contained circumstantial evidence and that it must therefore prefer the accounts of Senators Brown and Milne. Well, I say the circumstantial evidence is very, very strong and, I would argue, insurmountable. I believe the test is whether or not Senator Brown would have at every turn acted to advantage Mr Wood's bid for the woodchip mill if Mr Wood had not given the Greens the $1.6 million donation. Would any other senator have gone to the lengths that Senator Brown and the Greens did to advantage a businessman's purchase of a specific property in which he gained a $6 million benefit on the purchase price?