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

I am very happy to do so and to say instead that Senator Abetz is driven by a love of the greenies and the folk who defend his forests in his state and the beauty of those forests and wildlife, which he champions in the way we have just witnessed. His concern for them is new and is heart-warming!

Let me get serious on this again. The fact is that Senator Abetz, as minister for forests, intervened in the Wielangta Forest case quite unnecessarily in a politically driven move at the expense of the Australian taxpayers. His QCs were employed on taxpayers’ money; he did not have to raise money like I did, he just went and plundered the public purse. The difference between me and him is that I have asked the public, on behalf of the residents and other people of Wielangta, to support this case, and thank goodness they have. Thousands of good-hearted Tasmanians and other Australians and some people from overseas, very few of them have wished to donate, and they have. Let me say that it is something that Senator Abetz would never get a response to, because he is an agent of destruction of forests. Take a point of order on that, if you will, Senator Abetz. I repeat it: he was the minister for forests—