Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

This is not about Gunns. I know why you want to use that example, but this is about the measures we can put in place to encourage the reduction in Australia’s emissions as our contribution to fighting climate change. I know the philosophical position that some of the Greens have—which says we should not reward people for past behaviour—but we also need to think about how we give people an incentive to sequester carbon now. We are not putting in an incentive for people to knock down trees. We have made it clear that it is only land which has already been cleared. You cannot now say, ‘We are going to include it up until the end of this year and, therefore, if the Senate passes the scheme I will knock my forest down, replant it and get a credit.’ That is not what this provision says; it says if you have already legally cleared it. Whatever you might say about that, Senator Brown, the fact is that it was cleared. You may say that it should not have been cleared, it was wrong, it was political et cetera, but whatever the reason for it we are saying there is a net benefit to the environment if we enable credit for people allowing forests to grow on that land. That is a net benefit to the environment. That is why we have allowed credit for regrowth on forested land to be part of this agreement.