Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just briefly, I do not know this particular area terribly well—I am a Queensland senator from the north—but whenever the Greens run a campaign you always have to be suspicious. I want to thank Senator Back very much for telling those of us in the Senate who are interested in this what the real facts are. With the Greens political party, you have to always distinguish their political campaigns from their so-called environmental credentials. Senator Ludlam let the cat out of the bag when he told us all—as if we did not know—that there was an election coming up in Western Australia in the not too distant future. Of course, the Greens and the Labor Party, as a combined group as always, are fighting to defeat the Liberal government that has done so much for Western Australia over the past nine years.

But I rise in this debate simply to thank Senator Back. It is good that we have people like Senator Back, who know the facts, who can go through the history and who can tell it as it is, rather than listening to the mistruths and misconceptions of the Greens political party. I live in Queensland, and this is what we hear all the time from the Greens and their mates in the radical conservation groups. They will tell any lie at all to try and achieve their aims. I was interested in Senator Back's account of the court actions that have been taken. As I understand it, the courts have ruled against the line of the Greens political party and their radical green allies and ruled in favour of the law. The same happens in my state of Queensland. In Queensland, we desperately need the Adani rail and coal project. But the Greens political party representatives—the few of them that there are—and their radical green organisation counterparts keep taking court case after court case to try and stop this project, which means so much for jobs and wealth for all Queenslanders. It would be a fantastic project. It has unilateral support, except for the Greens political party. Even—I have to say to my colleagues over the aisle here—the Queensland Labor government has at last recognised the importance of this project and supports it. All the facts, all the evidence and all the scientific reports are there.