Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Senator Ludwig) to a question without notice asked by Senator Whish-Wilson today relating to funding under the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement.

The Greens have been very supportive of efforts to diversify Tasmania's economy over a long period of time—in fact, for the last 20 years. In 1992, we commissioned a report looking at a 20-year vision for the economy that would completely transform Tasmania's economy. Obviously, we had a green lens on that because we wanted to see less reliance on extracting industries and more development around clean, green and clever. That is where those three words came from: they were first quoted by Greens Leader, Senator Christine Milne, when she wrote that report.

When $100 million in funding becomes available to help diversify the Tasmanian economy that is certainly something the Greens are very keen to see unrolled, and we would like to participate in that. This has come from the Tasmanian forestry agreement. There are two separate sets of funding here: one set has gone toward buying out saw-log quota and haulage quota in the forestry sector to give contractors an exit with dignity and also to help restructure the economy, because those funds can be reused to develop other businesses and help diversify risk; and the second set of funding is $100 million which would go toward economic diversification projects. My concerns are around the processes of how that $100 million is spent. I clarify with Minister Ludwig—and I will obviously put this in writing to him—that he said that $100 million would be spent over 15 years. My understanding now is that the majority of it is going to be over four years, which is obviously a much shorter term than we had originally envisaged. The reason for 15 years was to lock a long-term structural change into Tasmania's economy, and to try and avoid problems that we had previously seen with perceptions around pork-barrelling and throwing money at pet projects

It concerns me that today the minister said that on 6 and 7 June Minister Albanese met with the Minister for Economic Development in Tasmania, David O'Byrne. Two days of consultation were put together to spend this $100 million, or to allocate it. There are a number of projects around the state that would be worthy of consideration for economic development funds. It became very clear to me today that there have been no tender processes or application processes that are fair and equitable and that everybody can participate in to try to access that funding. I am keen to hear more from Minister O'Byrne on what processes are being employed to allocate the funding, and whether that is based on specific advice from consultants or from other people? I would also like to hear when that money is going to be released, how it is going to be released and what transparency there will be around the allocation of those funds.

One hundred million dollars is a lot of money in a Tasmanian context. It could go a long way to help assist in: the transformation of the Tasmanian economy; the diversification of the risk that we so desperately need; less reliance on low-value commodity industries which, unfortunately, Tasmania can no longer rely on; and incentives to help people innovate and drive research and development. There are a number of projects for which people that I have spoken to in the Tasmanian economy are looking for funding. It is very difficult to know exactly how these businesses, these enterprises, these projects can seek funding. From what we can gather there are no specific guidelines around how this can be spent. An allocation of funds of this magnitude is so important for Tasmania that it is absolutely critical that to have credibility behind it so that, in future, the Tasmanian government makes every effort to make sure that this is not seen as pork-barrelling going into a federal election, or even into a state election next year.

I have two Greens colleagues who are ministers in the Tasmanian government who, I am confident, would like to see that money allocated on a transparent and equitable basis to projects that are very deserving, and that everybody gets the chance to have access to that funding. I will be following this up, keeping an eye on this and watching with interest over the next few weeks as we see announcements on where the funding is going to go. It concerns me that some federal Labor MPs have said that the funding has already been allocated and that they are looking forward to seeing announcements of that funding allocation. My understanding is that there are still people out there scratching their heads wondering how they can get access to these funds. I am looking forward to clearing that up. (Time expired)

Question agreed to