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

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 354.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate calls on senators from the Liberal Party of Australia and The Nationals to account for the $240 million of public money given to the Tasmanian logging industry by the Howard Government in 2004 and to explain to the parliament why this money did not halt the loss of markets, the closure of woodchip mills and the loss of hundreds of jobs in 2011.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The coalition would be more than happy to debate this motion fully and provide the information that Senator Brown is actually looking for. I do note, however, that all of the technical information surrounding these issues is actually on the public record. It has been extensively FOI'd by the Greens. So in regard to the issues about who got the money and where it went that is all well and truly known to the Greens because they have undergone an extensive FOI process. I understand it has also been studied by the Australian National Audit Office. We would be more than happy to debate this issue, so if Senator Brown and his coalition partners, the Labor Party, were to provide Senator Macdonald, Senator Abetz and me some time in the chamber we would be more than willing to put on the public record the issues that Senator Brown seeks as part of this motion.

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

by leave—I thank Senator Colbeck for coming halfway on the motion which, for the Senate's information, calls on senators from the Liberal Party and the Nationals to account for the $240 million of public money given to the Tasmanian logging industry by the Howard government in 2004 and to explain to the parliament why this money did not halt the loss of markets, the closure of woodchip mills and the loss of hundreds of jobs in 2011. What is required here is much better than a debate; it is simply a response to this motion, if it passes the chamber, from the Liberals, including Senator Colbeck. He has the advantage here not of a debate, in which he will be responded to, but of simply providing the information to the chamber and therefore to the people of Australia.

We have to remember that in 2004, $240 million was effectively transferred from the taxpayers of Australia, through the Howard government's election promise, to the logging industry in Tasmania. This is the same logging industry that is now being supplied with a further $276 million of taxpayers' money but is, yet, shedding thousands of jobs and has done so in the meantime.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Liberals are interjecting here. I remind the chamber that in that same period 3,000 people have been shed from the retail industry in Tasmania and not one of them is getting compensation. What the Liberals have not done is explain what happened to that money. Lots of questions remain over that, and if the motion is successful the Senate is now requesting them to provide that information so that the public can see what happened to their $240 million.

Question agreed to.