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

There is no point of order. Other senators are interjecting to say that he looks enraged to them, and that is how it seems to me. The senator should apologise for his behaviour as minister for forests, because it was wrong, unacceptable, presumptive and without communication with the Australian people that he plundered their purse to pay $436,000 for his wasted contribution to the courts on this occasion.

I want to finish by saying this: the decisions being made by serial governments at national and state levels to destroy much more of Australia’s great forests, the inspiration they give us as Australians, the habitat they give to our fellow creatures, the amazing beauty of them and the adventure and creativity that they provide for Australians—setting aside their role as the biggest carbon banks on earth, hedging against the onrush of cataclysmic climate change—are something that I and my fellow Greens senators and many, many more Australians will stand and defend against through this period of wanton destruction at the behest of people like Senator Abetz. If he thinks that in some way or other he is pressing a reverse button, he is very mistaken yet again. He makes lots of mistakes but on this one where there is a commitment to protecting Australia’s forest heritage, its wildlife and its rare and endangered species the campaign is simply going to increase until the right decision is made that that unnecessary destruction must come to an end and we as a nation can rest proud that, as with the end of whaling under a more enlightened Liberal government in 1978, we have been able to do the right thing by this national heirloom and what should be, but are not, World Heritage status forests.

Question agreed to.