Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Milne, instead of coming in here and whining and carping and instead of going across to Nairobi and talking Australia down, should actually be going across there and saying, ‘Let’s look at some of the good things Australia is doing.’ Under Labor, they were cutting down hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests a year. We have stopped all of that, and now we are planting more. In fact, we are on track to plant the billion trees that former Senator Richardson and former Prime Minister Hawke went down and stood on the banks of the Murray and said they were going to plant. They never did it. In fact, trees were being chopped down on the very day that the photo of them making that announcement was taken. They were chopping down more trees than they were planting. That is another one of the technologies we need. We have to change land use practices across the globe.

So there are seven technologies you absolutely must have, and the Greens have said no to carbon capture and storage. They do not want to capture the carbon, stop it going into the atmosphere and bury it under the ground. This legislation and the government’s action allow us to do that. The Greens say no to nuclear, yet they have the rank hypocrisy to side with the French when it comes to lecturing Australia. They are cheering on the Europeans, including the French Prime Minister, who 10 days ago said that he is going to start taxing Aussie wine. They hate Aussie wine over there in France, because we make better wine than they do. They hate Aussie champagne over there, because we make it better than they do, so of course they want to tax it.

Senator Milne—the hypocrisy knows no bounds—comes in here and talks about coral reef protection, when Australia leads the world with the Great Barrier Reef. We get international awards. WWF gave me a Gift to the Earth award last year because we have protected the Barrier Reef and put in place 34 per cent protection, which the Labor Party are going to tear up. Senator Milne cheers on the French, saying, ‘Vive la France!’ What do they do to coral reefs? We know what they do to coral reefs in the Pacific. She is defending the French. They get 80 per cent of their power from nuclear energy, and Senator Milne says, ‘Oh, we’ll turn a blind eye to them.’ Europe is run on nuclear energy, but she says: ‘They are good fellows. They have signed the protocol.’

As to her own country, which she should be cheering for, she wanders around the halls in Nairobi saying, ‘Australia is so dreadful.’ She hates Australia and she cheers on the French. What do they do to coral reefs? Eighty per cent of their power comes from nuclear energy and they are not happy with that. Their greenhouse gas emissions are going to go nine per cent over their Kyoto target. You do not hear Senator Milne getting up at Nairobi and saying: ‘Look, Australia is trying really hard. I do not actually agree with the Howard government. I think they should do more.’