Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the member for Herbert say, 'What?' They're well and good to come in here and lecturing about what's good for the environment, biodiversity, shutting down those terrible farmers who feed us three times a day and closing down the Murray-Darling Basin, but, when there are a few trees—I shouldn't say 'a few' as it's more than a few; it's dozens of trees—that's okay. They say, 'Let's just get the bulldozers in.' What's good for the goose has to be good for the gander, but I tell you what—how hypocritical is that! And they'll come in here—and she's one to talk. She tells us that all those terrible miners that we have in this country have caused the global warming in Pakistan. That's what she has said. That's what she is on the public record as having said. You can't make this stuff up.

I can hear your incredulity, member for Herbert. It is right. This nature positive environmental bill is just another overreach; it's just more bureaucracy. I mean, we know where it starts, but the question is: where does it end? That is the major problem, and yet we've got a Labor government that is not actually doing all that well in the polls or anywhere else at the moment. The people out there are palpable with white-hot anger about how they've governed this nation, and if they lose enough seats and end up having to power share with the Greens after the election then God help Australia.

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