Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens chuckle, as well as, might I add, foolishly, Senator Feeney, whose government’s policy is in fact to be supportive of what I am saying. I think just his personal dislike of me made him chuckle in such a way that has now embarrassed him and his own colleagues. That aside, we know that in our native forest harvesting we go through a cycle of literally decade upon decade, and that is why our forestry practices are regarded as world’s best.

When I was forestry minister I asked Senator Bob Brown which country has better forestry practices than Tasmania and Australia. For years and years he could not answer, and then finally he foolishly interjected: ‘New Zealand’. New Zealand uses 1.2 tonnes of 1080 per annum in its operations compared to Tasmania’s 1.2 kilograms per annum and ever decreasing. Having been pointed out some of these basic facts, Senator Brown no longer champions the cause of New Zealand forestry. I wonder what other country he points to, given that he no longer relies on New Zealand.

I say to him that, in relation to the wedge-tailed eagle, there are many measures in place to seek to protect it in Tasmania. He knows that to be the case, he knows that to be the fact, but I think he also knows that wind farms in Tasmania have occasioned a toll on the wedge-tailed eagle population—I think more so than any forestry operation has ever done. Having said that, I simply indicate that, as is so often the case with the Australian Greens, if it does not suit their cause, especially their cause of fundraising, they will simply repeat the myths time and time again in the face of objective evidence and in the face of what world practice is, be it anywhere in Europe or be it the WWF report on biomass—you name it. The world is saying that waste wood should be used as a renewable energy. That is what people all around the world are saying other than one group of people, and that is the Australian Greens.

In relation to the first tranche of amendments by the Greens, I indicate that the opposition will be voting against them.