Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Is the minister aware that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, has made it clear that global emissions must peak by 2015 and thereafter fall quickly if we are to avoid a global temperature increase of more than two degrees and, further, has made it clear that greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation are the major driver of climate change? If so, will the minister ensure that, consistent with the findings of IPCC, any assessment of the Gunns pulp mill will include the emissions from native forest logging—given that it is projected that emissions from the logging and the pulp mill itself will be over 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year? If not, why not?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is another example of the misinformation that the Greens deliberately seek to peddle in relation to the proposed pulp mill in the state of Tasmania. What has the Australian Greenhouse Office, the authoritative Australian Greenhouse Office, said about the forestry sector in Australia? They have said it is the only carbon-positive sector of our economy. As the trees are growing, they are cleaning up the atmosphere. That is the ‘inconvenient truth’ that the Australian Greens refuse to listen to, refuse to accept and refuse to acknowledge because it undermines their misinformation campaign. The simple fact is that the pulp mill in Tasmania as currently proposed would in fact be largely using renewable energy sources. As we know, the IPCC, quite rightly, has pointed to the evils of deforestation. What the Greens continually mischievously say to the people of Australia is that forest practices are equal to deforestation. The IPCC and others in the know on this draw a clear difference, a stark contrast, between wholesale deforestation and a responsible forest practice like we have in this country. As I have often said to the Australian Greens, I encourage Senator Milne, when she asks her supplementary question, to tell me one country where they do forestry better than we do in Australia. I will take myself over there to learn their practices and will seek to import them here. I have thrown down that challenge to the Australian Greens time and again, and they are unable to answer. Why? Because in their heart of hearts they know that the forest practices in this country are the best in the world. We must be on broadcast, because Senator Bob Brown has a point of order.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr President: they have stopped native forest logging in New Zealand. The minister ought to go there and see how they do it.

Alan Ferguson (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brown, what is your point of order?

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He asked for the name of a country which has better practices and I said ‘New Zealand’.

Alan Ferguson (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, thank you to Senator Brown—and come in spinner! Can you now tell us how many pulp mills there are in New Zealand coexisting with wineries? You know that there are six pulp mills in New Zealand which coexist and are not melting the icecaps. Your colleague Senator Milne so dishonestly put to the RPDC a submission—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Alan Ferguson (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! We will not continue until there is order. Senator Abetz, kindly address your remarks through the chair.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. I always do, I am sure you will acknowledge, Mr President. Senator Bob Brown will need to acknowledge that his colleague Senator Milne co-signed with Peg Putt, the leader of the Greens in Tasmania, a submission to the RPDC asserting that the icecaps in New Zealand would melt if the Tasmanian pulp mill were built. That is true; that is the fact. And do you know what, Mr President? They have six pulp mills in New Zealand, the icecaps are still there and they still have a burgeoning skiing industry. I say to those who listen to the Australian Greens: be very careful of seductive language because, while it might sound good on the surface, it is in fact counter to the interests of the environment because, if we do not use a renewable resource that cleans the atmosphere while it is developing—such as timber—we as humanity will be using plastics, aluminium and steel, resources which are petrochemical in origin, non-renewable and leave carbon footprints a lot larger than those of Senator Brown’s international travel.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given that Minister Abetz has said that the Greenhouse Office assessed greenhouse gas emissions from the pulp mill, will he please make that assessment public. If he did not say that the Greenhouse Office assessed greenhouse gases from the pulp mill, will he now guarantee and ensure that greenhouse gases from logging and the pulp mill will be assessed, given that the prediction is that there will be 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year—that is, two per cent of Australia’s emissions in full? Will it be assessed under the Commonwealth process?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am glad that Senator Milne did correct herself. I said that the forest industry is carbon positive; I did not say that about the pulp mill. If Senator Milne is genuinely concerned about greenhouse gases, why would she suggest that 80 per cent of the product, which is going to be sourced from north-east Tasmania, be sent by diesel truck from the north-east to the north-west to be processed, which will put literally thousands of extra tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere? Why do you oppose a pulp mill, which will ensure that fossil fuels continue to be burnt by shipping the woodchips from Tasmania to Japan to be processed, only to be returned to Australia, through fossil fuels and the shipping industry, knowing full well that in Japan they will be processed in a dirtier mill than exists in Tasmania? It is so typical of the Greens’ ‘not in my backyard’ mentality.