Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

You were not even in the parliament. Thank you, Senator Carr; by saying so, you indicate that, if you had been in the parliament, perhaps you would not have done anything quite as stupid as that. And that is the point I wanted you to make, because it was perhaps the silliest, the most ridiculous, the most stupid decision that this government has ever made—and supported by the Greens political party. But hang on, it is the Greens political party who are now the farmers' friends!

This bill adds to the legislation a ninth matter of national environmental significance. Under the original legislation, introduced by former Senator Hill, the matters of national environmental significance were world heritage sites; national heritage sites; wetlands of international importance—that is, Ramsar wetlands; nationally threatened species and ecological communities; migratory species; Commonwealth marine areas; and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. We are adding to that, now, another matter of national environmental significance: the impacts of coal-seam gas development and large coalmining developments on a water source. Nobody really objects to that—except for the fact that the state parliaments already have that power and have been actively using that power.

What this Labor government initiative does is what Labor governments always do: make more regulation, more red tape and more taxes; increase the cost of living and just make Australia an investment destination that is rapidly dwindling in favour. Whilst the Greens and the Labor Party all like the standard of living that we have in Australia, even they should be able to see that investment in Australia is going elsewhere. It is a bit awful when I have foreign investors telling me that they find Mali a better sovereign risk than the Commonwealth of Australia.