Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was hardly a point of order, Mr Acting Deputy President, as you quite rightly ruled. Isn't it funny that Senator Milne sat there and said nothing when erroneous, mischievous and deliberately false accusations were made against the honourable Premier of Queensland but when a correct accusation is made about the largest ever single donation given to any political party—and I assume, in the way the Greens use the terminology, to Senator Milne—she raises a point of order? It demonstrates, like everything Senator Waters, the previous speaker, just said, the abject hypocrisy of the Greens political movement.

The Greens will be moving motions later today about youth unemployment—we must have more jobs for young people. We certainly must, but how do you do it? You do it by developing our country in a sustainable and careful way. That is what the coalition has always stood for. You will never hear this from the Greens, but every single positive environmental measure that has ever come through this parliament has been done by the Liberal and National parties. This goes right back to the time of the first Minister for the Environment, who was a Liberal. Saving Fraser Island was done by a Liberal government. Establishing the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and protecting that very significant resource were done by a Liberal government. I can go on and on. All of the significant environmental advances in our country have been as a result of the work of Liberal and National governments. But would you believe that from listening to the previous speaker?

We again had false accusations about Abbot Point and trashing the Great Barrier Reef. They were absolutely false. Dr Russell Reichelt, a respected scientist, actually said at the beginning of his evidence to a committee inquiry called by Senator Waters that the Great Barrier Reef is currently in great shape and tourists are coming to it and are loving the experience. Forget about what some Greens dominated world body says; ask the tourists who go there and ask the Australian scientists just how great the Barrier Reef is. It has to be looked after, but it is resilient and it will continue to prosper under the careful management of both the Commonwealth and the Queensland governments.

I mentioned youth unemployment. The Greens political party want to stop all development. They succeeded with forestry and are hell-bent on stopping the coal industry. They will not stop until they stop all industry in Australia. But you will notice that the Greens, like all other Australians, very much enjoy the great standard of living we have here, a standard of living that allows all Australians to go on holidays and have nice houses, nice cars and TV sets. The Greens very much welcome and enjoy the wonderful standard of life we have in Australia, but when you want to do things that create the wealth that builds Australia's standard of living the Greens are totally opposed to them. So the hypocrisy is absolutely palpable.

As I said earlier, I am delighted to see this bill. It has been a long time coming, although I might add that the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which sometimes, when it suits, the Greens say is the best piece of environmental legislation you have ever seen, was of course introduced by a Liberal minister—by then Senator the Hon. Robert Hill. I say somewhat proudly that I was his parliamentary secretary for the environment at the time. Again, in spite of what the previous speaker said, the coalition government has shown yet again that it is to the forefront of every significant piece of environmental legislation in this chamber. That world-breaking, significant legislation actually provided one-stop shops because I think all Australians understand that, whilst we have to be careful, we do not want to chase away would-be investment by doing the same thing twice, and that is what has happened in recent times.

I mentioned the Abbot Point project. Would you believe that that went through a very rigorous assessment by the then Queensland government? It was a Labor government, but did we hear the Greens complaining about it then? No, that did not worry the Greens because it was a Labor government.