Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak to the motion to take note of answers given by the Minister for Employment, Senator Abetz, to questions without notice asked today by Senator Thorp on the Abbott government's feeble and failed attempt to have parts of the Tasmanian wilderness removed from the World Heritage list. Senator Abetz's response was a personal attack on Senator Thorp, and showed his resolve to play politics over policy in regard to Tasmanian forests.

I begin by highlighting the remarks of the Portuguese delegation to the World Heritage Committee, who said that the arguments of the Australian government were, to say the least, feeble, and would set an unacceptable precedent. Of course these are just the first comments to come out of Doha, and we will all wait with interest to see what other responsible governments have to say about the Abbott government's almost unprecedented move to seek a delisting.

From the beginning, the rhetoric from the Tasmanian Liberals against a forest peace deal was simple political point-scoring. They saw an opportunity to wedge the community once more, just so that they could get into government. Once in government, of course, everything was out of the window.

Just a few weeks ago, Parliamentary Secretary Colbeck, Premier Hodgman and the member for Braddon, Brett Whitely, were more than happy to turn the sod on a project funded through the Tasmanian forests agreement package at Ta Ann in Smithton—the very agreement that saw industry, unions and environmentalists come together and end the decades-long war in the forests; the very agreement that was conceived by the industry because they knew that if the forest wars were to continue then their markets would continue to look elsewhere.

In December last year, the ABC reported what everyone in this place knows: without the peace deal, Ta Ann would have left Tasmania. Ta Ann's Executive Director, Evan Rolley, said at the time:

I don't think we would be operating the business, frankly … the Forest Agreement provided the basis on which we could go back in the market, hold the small amount of market that was still there for us …

Interestingly, despite all the huffing and puffing over the past four years, it is reported that, when push came to shove, the Abbott Liberal government did not even put in much of an effort to have the World Heritage listing reversed.

The Advocate newspaper in Burnie reported today that lobbyists at the meeting said there appeared to be little evidence of Australian government lobbying for the wind-back, in contrast to concentrated effort last week to avoid the listing of the Great Barrier Reef as in danger. After all of the rhetoric and all of the negativity, reports are out that the Liberal government barely even lobbied to see through the delisting. I suspect that industry has had a quiet word about how life is now and that there is peace in the forests. I also suspect that industry has had a quiet word to the Liberal state government about its bill to unwind the Tasmanian Forests Agreement. The state Liberals were just as rabid as the federal Liberals in pointing the finger at Labor. And the state Liberals promised to unlock Tasmania. And, as Senator Bushby said, they were rewarded for their campaign at the ballot box. But once they were in government the Tasmanian Liberals put up a bill that will not see one extra log available for harvesting for the next six years.

Tasmanians are waking up to the constant deception of the Abbott and Hodgman governments. The Burnie Advocate was running an online poll asking whether people supported the World Heritage Committee's decision. Over 50 per cent of respondents agreed with the World Heritage Committee's decision. We all know how vexed this issue is in Tasmania, yet a poll in the north-west's local newspaper showed that over 50 per cent are in support of the World Heritage Committee's decision. It is just further evidence that the Australian public is wising up to the negative feeble campaigns of the Liberal and National parties.

Senator Colbeck interjecting—

I conclude my contribution by noting that the 'robust and rigorous' Senator Colbeck, as Senator Abetz described him, has suffered from 'bandwidth limit exceeded' on his website today. I wanted to take another look at Senator Colbeck's photos of a so-called degraded area. These are photos that the department assured me in estimates were not included in the submission to the World Heritage Committee, photos that Senator Colbeck, Senator Abetz and the self-titled 'three amigos'—Mr Whitely, Mr Nikolic and Mr Hutchinson—use time and time again in their feeble campaign to unlock this so-called degraded area. The embarrassment to the Australian people on the international stage is the responsibility of Senator Colbeck, Senator Abetz and the three amigos. All Tasmanians—indeed, all Australians—deserve much better from our government.