Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Motion 8 would have been nice too, Senator Cadell. It would have been very nice. But, no, that's not what we get. They just don't want to have this conversation. They don't want to find ways to make sure that this can work properly for our nation. They just want to say no.

Then there's the extraordinarily troubling circumstance that we are seeing in Queensland, where a number of these projects are going ahead. That's the reason that environmental lands are included in this motion. We've got a former member of the Greens, Steven Nowakowski, who is mapping these developments and came to Canberra to brief us. Mr Nowakowski actually supported the leader of the Greens in this place and helped her campaign in northern Queensland so that she could get elected. He came down here concerned about the impact of these developments right through northern Queensland, particularly in koala habitat. And, yet, the Greens won't support this. Here is the coalition concerned about the impact on environmental land, and the Greens are voting against it. He's a former member of the Greens. He's former because his own party wouldn't listen to him, somebody who lives on, works on and knows this country.

There are 1,300 hectares of untouched koala habitat being impacted by one of the developments—and what do we hear from the environmental movement? Here's the thing. I watch television advertisements from the WWF in my home state of Tasmania. I have seen them here in Canberra. They ask me to donate to them to stop koala extinction. We've got an environment minister who says, 'No extinctions on my watch.' Did the WWF put in an objection to this development in Queensland that's going to impact on 1,300 hectares of pristine, prime koala habitat? There's been not a word from the WWF. Seriously, this organisation, the WWF, should be investigated for fraud. They are asking Australians to donate to them to prevent koala extinction. I reckon the ACCC would have a case to have a look at these guys. They are advertising for money, for donations, to prevent koala extinction. They tell us that koalas could go extinct, yet 1,300 hectares of prime koala habitat is being disturbed by one development and there's been not a sound out of the WWF. We see this go on and on. It's actually quite disgraceful.

We have remained consistent and persistent with respect to this debate, and we will continue to do so. We are genuinely concerned about the impact on farmers. We are genuinely concerned about the impacts for Indigenous Australians. We are genuinely concerned about the impact on environmental lands and also on our fishers. All we are asking is for their voices to be heard and for us to play our role, as we should in this place, to help find some solutions to ensure that these important developments can be undertaken in an orderly way and with fair compensation and fair access rights. That's all we are asking for. We're not asking for anything out of the ordinary, and the government at least should come on board, because it knows it has a problem. Andrew Dyer told them they had a problem in their report. Then, of course, it was time for him to leave.