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

I am also a member of this particular committee, although the inquiry had started before I joined it. I want to make some comments on the report. Senator Barnett has scared me with his comments about the Tasmanian Labor-Greens accord. We all remember the last time the Labor Party thrashed about to find a new messiah and came up with Mark Latham, who would have sold Tasmania down the drain, along with all the workers and everyone else. At that time, he was enthusiastically supported by all of the people who are currently in the Labor Party in determining policy. Senator Barnett, there are elements of fact behind the record of the Labor Party that make your warnings very appropriate.

I move on to the committee report. The committee had a lot of evidence before it, but one of the themes that came through in considering Australia’s national parks, conservation reserves and marine protected areas is that governments, particularly state governments, are very keen to establish national parks, usually in the 12 months before a state election, because it gives them green credentials and, in this way, they can guarantee that they will always get Greens preferences. You hear various members of the Greens political party berating, for example, Peter Beattie in my state, and yet you can bet your last dollar that, come the election, they will again preference Mr Beattie. Watch this federal election too. Some in the Greens political party, in some of their committee work—