Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will get to that. He has offended many people who gave of their time to make sensible, realistic recommendations about Northern Australia to the committee. In the press in North Queensland, Senator Macdonald said that the government was ‘pandering to a green agenda’, that the report was a ‘series of motherhood statements and bureaucratic recommendations’, and that the task force was ‘clearly captured by the radical green element’. He said:

The report is lightweight with a political focus towards green and indigenous issues.

So there is a bit of a contradiction between Senator Scullion’s point and what Senator Macdonald has said in the North Queensland media. That warranted a letter to the editor in the Townsville Bulletin and an opinion piece in the Cairns Post which was entitled ‘Debate report instead of name calling’. The letter of the week was by Michael Roche, Queensland Resources Council—hardly a person that you could say was captured by the radical green element. Michael Roche is well respected for his knowledge of the mining sector, as are a range of people who we put in the task force, including Elaine Gardiner, Shirley McPherson, Dr Rosemary Hill, Stuart Blanch and Professor Bob Wasson. Let’s remember that the committee also includes Terry Underwood, who is a grazier; David Crombie; David Baffsky; Lachlan Murdoch, Richie Ah Mat, Walynbuma Wunungmurra—I apologise for the mispronunciation of your name—Mr Joe Ross and Andrew Johnson from CSIRO. This is not what you would call a painted green task force.

Let us go to what Mr Roche had to put into print to defend himself against Senator Macdonald’s name calling.