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

She could easily say that the Howard government is not trying hard enough, but she cheers on the Europeans and says, ‘Let’s go and belt up Australia,’ and, ‘Three cheers, France, for belting up Australia and blowing up atolls in the Pacific,’—that is how the French look after coral reefs—and she gets three cheers from the Greens. It is appalling.

What she should be asking some of those European countries that she seems to just love is: ‘Why are Ireland 30 per cent over their target? Why are France over their target?’ They have 80 per cent nuclear energy and they are nine per cent over their target. Spain are over their target. Portugal are over their target. Norway are over their target. They are all over their targets, but it is okay; they have signed the Kyoto protocol, so they have salved their consciences! That is the difference between the coalition approach to the environment and that of Beazley Labor and the Greens. This vote shows the quintessential difference. All of their focus is on saying: ‘Oh, look. We are not going to have a five-year review of threatened species plans.’

They would rather spend millions of dollars creating thousands of pages of reviews of threatened species plans, paperwork, legislation, bureaucracy, more jobs for bureaucrats. You would have to keep buying bigger and bigger buildings for my department if these guys were in power. What do we want to spend the money on? We want to spend it on something unique: it is called the Australian environment; it is about protecting our wildlife. We would rather spend the millions of dollars on actually rebuilding habitat.

What is on the record? The record shows that under Mr Keating, under Labor, the last time Mr Beazley was finance minister—he has found green credentials now, he has all of a sudden become a greenie and even started talking about climate change lately; 10 years down the track, Mr Beazley has discovered climate change; it is a bit late but better late than never—Labor spent $390 million a year on the environment. What does the coalition spend? It spent $3.9 billion this year. That is a 10-fold increase on investment.