Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to disappoint Senator George Campbell and advise him that we are not deeply divided. We are, in fact, a very unified government and we are concentrating on delivering for the benefit of our fellow Australians. The proof in all these matters is in examining the issue, but I say to Senator Campbell and others that excessive advocacy on these issues unfortunately tends to trivialise them. I ask Senator George Campbell to listen in silence for once to the actual evidence. The evidence is, according to Senator Campbell—and I am taking a very big risk on this because I have been burnt so often in accepting Labor Party quotes at face value, but I am willing to take this one at face value—that Senator Hill, as Minister for the Environment, made comments about greenhouse issues. What did he do and what did the Howard government do? We established the Australian Greenhouse Office—and somebody might be able to correct me—in 1997 or 1998. Within two years of coming to office, we had the Greenhouse Office up and running. What does that say? That the Prime Minister and the cabinet agreed that this was an issue that needed to be dealt with, but without all the fanfare and without all the hysteria that those opposite seek to create on this important issue. We just went about our business of doing that which is sensible and practical.

The Labor Party have discovered the greenhouse issue just in recent times. We established the Greenhouse Office eight or nine years ago—somebody might be able to do the maths for me—way before the Labor Party ever thought of asking questions about this issue in this place. Since the establishment of the Australian Greenhouse Office, we have engaged in providing funding to renewable energy sources and providing grants to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas—be it in the forestry sector or in all sectors.