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

I am sorry; one of them is an Independent—but try to point me to any important legislation on which he has not voted with Labor and you will understand why I include him in the Labor Party. Tasmania is a state rich in natural resources that had the most sustainable, well managed timber industry in the world. But, thanks to Labor rolling over yet again for the Greens, the world's best-managed, most sustainable forest industry has been destroyed. I can never forgive the Labor Party for rolling over for the Greens.

There was a time in 2004 when the ALP held strong in the interests of workers' jobs in Tasmania and joined, along with at least the 'F' part of the CFMEU, the Howard government in saving the timber industry and workers' jobs in Tasmania. Since then, because Ms Gillard desperately needs the Greens in order to retain power—and it is all about power and only about power as far as the Labor Party is concerned—you have the five Tasmanian Labor Party members, or Labor-supporting members, playing a major role in the destruction of Tasmania's once grand, sustainable, best-managed timber industry.

Madam Acting Deputy President Crossin, you also have a fishing industry going through a tough time. But Minister Burke as Labor's fisheries minister said to the fishing industry: 'You need to be more efficient, you need to catch the specific quota in a more efficient way, and here's what you should do. You should get one of those big trawlers from overseas and bring it here. That way, although you won't catch more fish—there's a quota—you'll catch it more efficiently and effectively. So why don't you do that?' There were some foolish people who believed the Labor Party—although why would anyone believe the Labor Party? 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead,' hand on heart, and what is the first thing that happened? They introduced a carbon tax. 'There will be no interference in the Medicare rebate.' What is the first thing they do? Bring in the—