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

by leave—That was not just waffle; it was also a move by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett, through Senator Ludwig, to shut the public out of the process of evaluating the social, economic and environmental impacts of the Traveston Dam. People in Queensland and beyond—not least the 1,000 farmers who are going to be dispossessed of their land by the Queensland Labor government process—are vitally interested in it.

The motion simply calls for the report, which the Queensland Coordinator-General has compiled on the Traveston Dam and given to the minister for the environment, to be made public so that there can be public comment and so that the public knows what the process is. It is a draft report, but I would have thought it was plainly decent in an open democracy for the minister for the environment to release that report. It was given to him for his evaluation and consideration and for his feedback to the Queensland government. Is that process going to take place in total secrecy? If what the government has just said is true, that is the case. There is a deliberated effort by the minister for the environment and his counterparts in the Queensland Labor government to shut the public out. That is not acceptable. The process is open, and it is open to the minister to release this report. The Queensland government should release it. The minister is indicating that, when the final report comes to him, he will not have public input into that either. That is a travesty regarding the Traveston Dam. It is not acceptable. The government should be ashamed of this effort to cut the public out of this process.