Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation (Senator Abetz) to a question without notice asked by Senator Milne today relating to climate change.

In particular, I want to note the failure of the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation to ensure that the proposed Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania is assessed for its greenhouse gas emissions. We have a Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation who tried to mislead the parliament when I asked the question about the pulp mill by saying that the Australian Greenhouse Office measures carbon in forests and so on. I asked specifically about the pulp mill proposal. Under the RPDC process, the greenhouse gas emissions were to be assessed. Once that process was dumped by the Lennon government, there was no prospect of the greenhouse gas emissions being assessed. And yet the minister and his colleagues stand up and say to the rest of the world in the Sydney declaration that they are concerned about climate change. In fact, under ‘forests’ the Sydney declaration says:

Forests can play a critical role in the carbon cycle. Ongoing action is required to encourage afforestation and reforestation and to reduce deforestation ...

The pulp mill in Tasmania is going to lead to massive deforestation and we are going to see at least 10 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions every year as a result of the pulp mill, and the minister will not allow it to be assessed. What are you afraid of? What is the government so afraid of? What is the opposition so afraid of? Why won’t you allow the greenhouse gas emissions from this pulp mill to be assessed? How can the community have any faith in all this talk about climate change when we know that deforestation is a major driver and you will not allow this to be assessed?

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Colbeck interjecting—

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What is it that Senator Colbeck is so afraid of that he is not prepared to have scrutiny of the level of forest logging for and the emissions from the pulp mill? I have legal advice, which I have provided to both the government and the opposition, showing that under the EPBC Act the government has the power to assess the greenhouse gas emissions. So why won’t it do so?

I would suggest to you that the reason that the government and the opposition do not want the greenhouse gases assessed is that they will be horrified to find that 10 million tonnes is in fact an underestimate. The reason that this is so serious is that the logging starts now, the deforestation occurs now, the emissions go into the atmosphere now and it takes decades, if not centuries, for that carbon dioxide to be taken out of the atmosphere. The IPCC has told us that those emissions must be capped and must be reduced by 2015. You are prepared to put all that greenhouse gas into the atmosphere now, when we simply cannot.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are wrong.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister says that I am wrong. Let the minister assess this. Why are you so afraid to have the greenhouse gas emissions from the Gunns pulp mill assessed? As for the misrepresentation here, let me say that I was shocked today to hear Senator Minchin say that China has not signed or ratified the Kyoto protocol. What level of ignorance is that? In fact, the Chinese government signed the Kyoto protocol in May 1998 and it was ratified by China on 30 August 2002. The government goes round saying that China has done nothing and that China is not included, but they cannot even get their basic facts right. China has not only ratified the Kyoto protocol but is benefiting enormously from investment under the clean development mechanism in the Kyoto protocol.

Further to that, we have Senator Abetz telling us that the IPCC agrees with the government, when in fact Dr Pauchauri has said:

Nothing that I said in my telephone interview with Mr Matthew Warren implied or even remotely conveyed that I supported or opposed the Australian Government’s policies on climate change.

In a letter to me, he went on to say: ‘It is not for me to comment on the climate change policy of any country and I’ve been scrupulously careful in maintaining this stance. What was clearly a distortion was the publication by the Australian of my views as an endorsement of the Australian government.’ So I hope that the government is now going to desist from misrepresenting the Chairman of the IPCC.

Let us hear from the government. Will you now have the emissions from the pulp mill and the logging assessed? If not, why not? Why are you so intent on protecting Gunns and making a lie of any suggestion that you are serious about climate change? Obviously, you are not serious about climate change. You are prepared to drive climate change with emissions from logging for this pulp mill in Tasmania. If you say that it is not 10 million tonnes every year, what is it? (Time expired)

Question agreed to.