Mr NAIRN (1:50 PM) —I wish to participate a second time in this debate and follow the spirit of the argument put forward by the member for Braddon, who is my golfing colleague, and talk about investment and, in particular, the disallowance aspect of these amendments. Before I do so, could I comment on a couple of matters that have been raised throughout the debate here today. Firstly, the member for Fremantle in her first contribution was rubbishing the procedures that the department in Western Australia, CALM, ran as part of the regional forest agreement. The same procedures were set up when she was the Premier. They were okay when she was the Premier over there but now, because it does not suit the political argument, she was in here rubbishing them. Perhaps she forgot that she was actually in charge at the time those were put in place.

Also, the member for Reid had a go at me for concentrating on science. I do not apologise at all for concentrating on the science, because that is what it is really all about. My charge of those opposite that none of them understand real science at all, and that they understand only political science, was proven by the member for Paterson when he attacked Minister Tuckey over the record of passing RFA legislation. Clearly, he has no science background, and maths is a science. He attacked the minister for actually signing six RFAs in 3½ years whereas, when he was the member for Paterson prior to being thrown out in 1996, under a Labor government they signed zero RFAs in four years. Maths is my background in science and zero out of four is certainly not as good as six RFAs in 3½ years, I can assure the member for Paterson.

Also, the member for Reid talked passionately about this disallowance only being 15 days. What he did not say is that it is 15 sitting days, and there is a significant difference between 15 days and 15 sitting days. That brings the politics back into it again. Talking of politics, when members opposite say that these things will not be a problem, I remind them of a quote from Senator Bob Brown representing the Greens of Tasmania:

The Senate can now disallow most of the regional forest agreements. The Western Australian RFA in particular is doomed.

That is what they would have to cope with under these sorts of amendments.

That brings me back to where I started in relation to investment and disallowance. I agree with the member for Braddon that we can work through some of this. The real sticking point is in relation to this disallowance. The reason we are absolutely passionate about this is that it is the link to investment. I made the charge before about the members opposite not understanding science, and I am afraid that I have to make the same charge against the members opposite in relation to investment. There are not too many opposite who have been through these sorts of processes. They have to understand how the real world works. When someone goes to their bank manager wanting to expand their business and put on more people, they have to give some security. What sort of security is it to tell the bank manager that they have this fantastic value adding project that they want to implement? Hopefully, it will be in my electorate of Eden-Monaro where we need it or in one of the other regional areas with high unemployment. How can the bank lend them money if the person wanting the loan says, `I might get resourced for a year or a couple of years; the parliament can always look again at those things and throw them out'? That is effectively what will happen under this disallowance.

Unemployment continues to be a problem in regional areas. I notice that member for McMillan did not come into this place for any of this debate. He is often standing up complaining about unemployment problems in his electorate, but he has not been here in two hours of this debate. He should be in here telling his Labor colleagues that the amendments that they want will stop investment. They will not provide the investment, and you will not get the jobs unless you get the investment. (Time expired)