Senator BROWN (6:25 PM) —Senator Lees might be happy that she has got assurances from the trucking industry but that was not what I was asking about. I was asking about the actual achievement of environmental good coming out of this. We should be getting measurement. Senator Lees, I was not attacking you over this. I thought that you opposed the GST totally but there was built into that a commitment from the government which went to the nation, over your handshake with the Prime Minister, that there would be extraordinary environmental benefits coming out of this. They have not surfaced, and the response you give is minimalist. We are talking about very major moves to clean up this nation's worst in the world environmental record. They have not happened. Where is the evidence before this committee that the hundreds of millions that were going to be committed to that end have achieved what was promised?

You talk about fuel alternatives. In terms of the solar industry in the last few years, we have the best technology in the world but the photovoltaic industry in this country has had to go cap in hand for every cent it can get. It has had funds cut from it in this country as money went across to the coal industry in the pursuit of that oxymoronic term `clean coal' as an energy future. So let's call a spade a spade here. The GST deal, as far as giving an environmental good to the country, is a flop. It did not work. Mr Howard dudded the then Democrats leadership. We have to recognise that the government is reckless when it comes to the environment. We are dealing with a $2.8 billion stimulus to the bad. Where is the $2.8 billion for the good? It is not there; it has not been given. It is not working. To talk about getting assurances from the trucking industry, or from the mining industry for that matter, is simply fatuous. It has been a failure.