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

What is it that Senator Colbeck is so afraid of that he is not prepared to have scrutiny of the level of forest logging for and the emissions from the pulp mill? I have legal advice, which I have provided to both the government and the opposition, showing that under the EPBC Act the government has the power to assess the greenhouse gas emissions. So why won’t it do so?

I would suggest to you that the reason that the government and the opposition do not want the greenhouse gases assessed is that they will be horrified to find that 10 million tonnes is in fact an underestimate. The reason that this is so serious is that the logging starts now, the deforestation occurs now, the emissions go into the atmosphere now and it takes decades, if not centuries, for that carbon dioxide to be taken out of the atmosphere. The IPCC has told us that those emissions must be capped and must be reduced by 2015. You are prepared to put all that greenhouse gas into the atmosphere now, when we simply cannot.