Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The first in the world. Thank you, Senator Abetz. We were on the case long before it became popular in other countries around the world and certainly long before it became popular in the organisations of the Australian Labor Party. They are the Johnny-come-latelys to this debate. Our government has been dealing with this seriously since 1996, the year we came into government. Time will not permit me to go into all of the things that our government has done, but I would just mention one little thing: the Commercial Environment Forestry project funded in the budget a few years ago. That is the sort of thing that this government has been doing with the industry to ensure that forestry is recognised as being very much part of the solution to climate change.

This government has funded and the industry has run any number of projects working towards that end. The enormous amount of effort that the government has put into matters like water usage and carbon sequestration involving forestry are too numerous to mention. But we got there with this particular project. The research and development element of it that has been supported by government for many years will remain, but the industry itself will put in additional levies to make sure that the Australian public are well aware of the sustainable nature of our forestry.

As I said, I regret to see that even today the Greens continue, at every turn, to try to destroy this fabulous Australian industry, this industry that does more to promote environmental results than practically any other industry. The Greens would have us all buy houses made of aluminium or cement—