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

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Minchin, and it relates to the Prime Minister’s 2004 election promise to protect 18,700 hectares of old-growth forest in the Styx and Florentine valleys in Tasmania. In the light of the logging operations proceeding there at the moment and the admission by his colleague Senator Abetz, the minister for forests, that not all of the upper Florentine valley was protected as pledged during the 2004 election campaign, will Senator Minchin now admit that he misled the Senate when on 30 March 2006 he said:

It is absolutely outrageous to suggest that the Prime Minister has not honoured his promise. He is honouring his promises to the people of Tasmania in full. This was a major commitment to the people of Tasmania ...