Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

from the shadow minister for environment of Australia—a great critic, sometimes, of the government's policies. What does he say? 'Applications for grants for the 20 Million Trees Programme are now open for any interested group in the Port Adelaide electorate.' I am expecting him to be endorsing the Green Army, the coastal rivers programs, the dugongs and turtles program and our Antarctic program because, interestingly, he raises the question of the Antarctic. When we opened the bottom drawer it was very interesting, because they had talked about an ice breaker—a half a million-dollar program. And do you know what? There was nothing there. There was no money in the Antarctic program.

We have put not just the best part of half a billion dollars in for an ice breaker, we put $25 million in for the Antarctic CRC, we put $24 million in for the Antarctic Gateway Partnership and we put $38 million in for the extension of the Hobart runway, which will help not just the Antarctic program but will also help with the Tasmanian economy.

What you see is people who talk big but leave blank cheques that other people have to pick up. When you look at the reality of it, they put in place pink batts, green loans, cash for clunkers, the citizens assembly, the carbon tax and a phantom credit scheme. They axed the solar rebate, the solar hot water rebate, but they could not fund the ice breaker. They did not fund the gateway partnership, they did not fund the Hobart runway program—we did. At the end of the day, when it comes to the environment, we actually do the hard work. They are the frauds.

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