Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was just letting you know that I know the facts. The legislation is before the parliament but the parliament does not know, from your answer, where in the rest of the world we will be able to trade carbon credits from to bring them back for credit use in Australia from trees. I would have thought that was a fairly fundamental thing to know. However, you say we are rushing at this and there have been no questions—we are getting questions with no answers.

In Australia there is a recent phenomenon for which there is $2 billion available—for the likes of the purchase by RM Williams of a cattle station and the sale by Allan Myers of another station, both in the Northern Territory, for carbon accreditation. What is the model that is being used to prove up the credits on those properties under this carbon legislation? If a bushfire goes across half the property, as they do out in that country—there has just been a 2½ million hectare fire in the centre of Australia—what is the model they are going to use? I ask that because on the PR side of this they are saying that these properties will make more money as sit-down properties for carbon credits than they will producing food?