Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Before the minister responds, I would like to follow up with Senator Joyce, because this is precisely the point I was making this morning on avoided deforestation. What you have been talking about is afforestation or reforestation, and clearly the circumstance which Senator Joyce has outlined would not qualify as reforestation under the rules. But the question I asked this morning on avoided deforestation was precisely this question that Senator Joyce has just asked, and I was asking it in terms of the baseline. You would have to assume that, if a farmer did as Senator Joyce was just saying and made a decision this year not to go and reclear land—or to take the stock off or whatever—in order that it regrow, you would have to know that in making that decision you would qualify for avoided deforestation, because five or 10 years down the track you will have your forest growing there and you would want the credits for that. Otherwise you would keep on clearing it, grazing it or doing what you were doing to it.

So that is why I asked the question about baselines and avoided deforestation. This is a critical issue for people to know about, because it is going to influence their land use decisions from here on in. That is why I would like to know whether the scenario that Senator Joyce has just outlined would qualify for avoided deforestation. I am going to come back to the accounting in a minute, but I just wanted to follow up, because that is precisely what Senator Joyce is asking. I just wanted to follow it up in the context of avoided deforestation.