Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. The minister’s asseveration that government will be consulting widely means nothing. I ask the minister, as she left out the minister for the environment, Peter Garrett: will he be consulting 50 key environmental groups from across this nation in this parliament for a day to hear what they have to say on this issue? Will the minister for science be consulting 50 top scientists and might he invite the chief scientist for NASA—who has described the digging up of coal in the future as a criminal offence—to a similar conference in this parliament? Will the minister for small business be having a similar conference to look after the interests of the renewable energy and small business sector, and ditto for tourism? Where are these conferences, I ask the minister?