Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry to disappoint Senator Milne, but I will not be supporting this amendment, particularly given the activities of organisations such as Markets for Change—which I note the former leader of the Greens in the Senate, Bob Brown, was appointed to the board of today—who really do not care much about the impact that they have on Australian business in the campaigns that they run. Given, as Senator Milne has said, that it is most likely to be the environmental groups that are chasing this sort of stuff down—I understand industry has been told that in their consultations with the government as well—and given the activities of organisations like Greenpeace and Markets for Change, I am very reluctant to support any particular measure that gives them an additional weapon to use against industry. So I cannot support this amendment.

I am very cognisant of the comments that the minister has made. I think that his consideration of that is very important. It was an issue that we talked about during the committee stage and we decided that it should not be supported as part of that process. But I have to say that the activities of extreme environmental groups in recent times have brought me down much harder on the side of caution in giving them additional privileges over and above those that they already have under Australian law. In that context, the opposition will not be supporting this amendment.