Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Don’t you join in, Senator Conroy. You are the last person who would seek to represent the rural sector. The Environment Association, Senator Conroy, noted the undesirable impacts in rural Tasmania, stating their concerns before the Senate inquiry. They said:

Australia’s attempts to sequester carbon to mitigate global climate warming are likely to promote a mass expansion of artificial plantings in Tasmania. A great social concern for Tasmania is that farming activity is being replaced by artificial plantations which employ very few. The reduction in farming activity, the local production of food and associated employment is a long-term loss that may well have severe impacts for the viability of our community.

And the VFF, the Victorian Farmers Federation, gave similar evidence, backing up the Environment Association from Tasmania.

It is worthy to note that this debate has been very much centred on the theory of the scheme, though some people have properly touched on the practicalities of the scheme. As they have all said: ‘Who is following up on all of this in five, 10 or 15 years? When they get the deduction in the first year, who is going to follow up on that?’ I should inform the Labor Party that this is still a country of fires and floods and droughts. If you ever try to plant a mass lot of trees—and the two senators across there would never have tried to plant a tree, except in perhaps the backyard of their suburban home—it will be a case of get the tax deduction in the first year and run, because no-one will be checking to see what the results of that plantation are. (Time expired)