Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for the answer, Minister, on how many hectares are estimated in this scheme. Could you explain to me the model that you used to come up with those estimations, given that we do not know the value of the market and we do not know what price the market is going to put on the carbon trade? Could you explain to me, if you meet those recommendations, how much carbon will be offset by those hectares and what the value of it would be?

This is flying by the seat of your pants. No-one really knows. There is no regulation and no market in Queensland. Minister, can we have some explanation of what we are doing to Australia’s taxpayers and of the pressure on agricultural land, because this is—I will not use the terminology I would normally use, Mr Deputy President—baloney. I would like to know what modelling was used to come up with those estimations and what presumption they were based on. In some states there is not even an established market, and if we met those 80,000 hectares, or whatever it is, what minuscule part of the market would that offset? I just cannot believe that we have come up with this law, and I would like to put the investors on notice that I am going to do everything I can to make this a fair dinkum sink operation where you will lock land up if you participate. No-one can explain to me the contractual arrangements between the freehold, the leasehold and the emitter and the legal obligations in that. We do not even know what the market is going to establish as the value, and of course the higher the value the higher the grade of land that will be used because, as I said before, no-one in their right mind is going to grow a crop if they can sit on their backside and collect the dividend out of this.

There are millions of hectares in northern Australia that would be suitable climatically and geographically for carbon offsets, but they will go to cleared land and prime farming land under this ridiculous proposition that has gone through the parliament. Minister, could you explain to me the modelling behind that and the amount of carbon that will be offset, and what percentage of the offset that will be required in Australia, given that there is no market in Queensland?