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

Senator Colbeck just accused me of having said that these trees were genetically modified. I have never said that. What I said was that they have been selectively bred—genetically improved—in order to address issues that the forest industry thought it needed to address, including palatability, no doubt, to browsing species and insect attack. That is why one of the issues in the inquiry that I would like to look at is the current breeding programs for eucalyptus species and any ecological and human health implications of current research into reducing foliage palatability. We know that research is going on in the hope, from forestry’s point of view, that they can increase the level of unpalatable leaves to browsing animals. That is part of research is currently ongoing and I would like to know about that because I want to know about the impacts—not just on human health but also on wildlife. What public interest tests and what wildlife tests are there?

But the issue here is that we need to know what is going on in the George River and in catchments around Tasmania. We have been pushing for groundwater assessments in every Tasmanian catchment for I cannot tell you how long, and that has been blocked by the minister in Tasmania and the Tasmanian cabinet with the support of the Liberal Party for the last 20 years. That is why the Commonwealth is not signing off on a lot of the water initiatives in Tasmania—there is no monitoring of water quality in a lot of the groundwater in Tasmania.