Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

It is very good to be able to follow Senator Milne, who has again demonstrated, as the Greens are so good at doing, that the Greens will say absolutely anything at any point in time to suit their case. The lies that have been told by the Greens political party over so many years about the forest industry were continued here tonight. What Senator Milne does not tell you is that she wants to see the end of the entire native forest industry in this country. She wants to undermine financially the entire forest industry in this country. The complete hypocrisy of the Greens political party in this space is absolutely breathtaking.

Senator Milne talked about the destruction of the native forest industry. She talked about the denuded landscapes from the native forest industry. What she does not tell you is that thousands of hectares of harvested native forests, some of it harvested as little as four years ago, have been nominated by green groups to be listed as wilderness in Australia's World Heritage area. Senator Milne completely excludes that. If these areas are so badly destroyed, as Senator Milne would like those who are listening to believe—another act of complete deceit, I might say—how do those thousands of hectares then qualify as wilderness to be listed by the World Heritage Committee as part of Australia's World Heritage estate?

What Senator Milne also does not tell you is that the Greens, as part of the Tasmanian forest agreement process, lined up and took Australian taxpayers' money to conduct regeneration burns in those areas that had been harvested by the forest industry.

An honourable senator: What are you talking about?

The green groups in Australia took this money. They took this money supported by the Australian Greens. They took this taxpayers' money to conduct regeneration burns. Of course, anytime there was a puff of smoke on the horizon in Tasmania from a Forestry Tasmania conducted regeneration burn, the Greens and the green groups would hit the telephones and complain about smoke pollution and the terrible effect on the environment—and yet the green groups, supported by the Australian Greens, are participating in exactly that process right now.