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

by leave—I thank Senator Colbeck for coming halfway on the motion which, for the Senate's information, calls on senators from the Liberal Party and the Nationals to account for the $240 million of public money given to the Tasmanian logging industry by the Howard government in 2004 and to explain to the parliament why this money did not halt the loss of markets, the closure of woodchip mills and the loss of hundreds of jobs in 2011. What is required here is much better than a debate; it is simply a response to this motion, if it passes the chamber, from the Liberals, including Senator Colbeck. He has the advantage here not of a debate, in which he will be responded to, but of simply providing the information to the chamber and therefore to the people of Australia.

We have to remember that in 2004, $240 million was effectively transferred from the taxpayers of Australia, through the Howard government's election promise, to the logging industry in Tasmania. This is the same logging industry that is now being supplied with a further $276 million of taxpayers' money but is, yet, shedding thousands of jobs and has done so in the meantime.