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

I seek leave to amend business of the Senate notice of motion No.1 standing in my name for today, proposing a reference to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee of the Auditor-General's report on the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement Contractors Voluntary Exit Grants Program.

Leave granted.

I move the motion, as amended, in the terms circulated in the chamber:

That the findings of the Auditor-General’s audit report No. 26 of 2007-08, Performance Audit Tasmanian forest industry development and assistance programs, and the Auditor-General’s audit report No. 22 of 2012-13, Administration of the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement Contractors Voluntary Exit Grants Program, be referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee for inquiry and report by 6 May 2013.

Question agreed to.

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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

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

It is really disappointing that we see the Greens using a process that should be utilised to look at the operations of the department and their compliance with their grant guidelines—through now, I see, two audit reports; Senator Milne obviously was not aware of the first one when she drafted her initial motion—to make an attack on the industry. That is what the Greens' tactic usually is: try and denigrate the reputation of the forest industry in Tasmania rather than do what we ought be doing, which is to look at the way that the government and particularly this agency is implementing its grant programs and then complying with the recommendations of audits that come through. This is on a day when Tasmania has become the first Australian state where less than half of all adult men are employed full time and where last week Minister Crean said that the forest industry should die before the dairy industry gets some support. It is an absolute disgrace that we are supporting this motion. (Time expired)

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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

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

Senator Colbeck is quite wrong. The whole point of this inquiry is to look at how it is possible that the department, the advisory committee and the decision maker actually signed off on Commonwealth money leaving when people who applied had not been eligible and when people who got zero on a merit score between zero and 100 got grants. It is to look at how it is possible that these things happen. This has been one of my major campaigns for a long time, and I went over that original audit report for hundreds of questions. The issue is: why has the department mismanaged these grants? That is what I hope to get to the bottom of, as to how these decisions have been able to be made. In fact, it is supported by the contractors in Tasmania—they want the same answers.