Senator BOB BROWN (Leader of the Australian Greens) (8:55 PM) —The fact is that this legislation, which Senator Conroy now says was the legislation of the previous government, and which is so seriously flawed, is now the legislation of the Rudd government—this government. And the best that Senator Conroy can do is say: ‘We essentially didn’t look at it, or at least we didn’t find anything wrong with it. We’ve brought it into the Senate without having had any decent review of it.’ But, as members contributing from the opposition benches and the crossbenches are pointing out, it is seriously flawed. This legislation is effectively opening up a rort whereby millions of dollars of tax deductions are going to be spent, including the takeover of food-producing land in Australia—

Senator Heffernan —It’s got to be. It’s part of the legislation.

Senator BOB BROWN —Absolutely! The tax deductions are not available to food producers. They do not get it. Corporations based in cities are going to get an offset and a massive windfall from the tax department for a program that is not going to achieve the aim of storing carbon. As Senator Heffernan has been saying, there is no guarantee, once you have planted the trees with the intention of getting the massive tax deduction, that those trees are going to grow to maturity, or grow at all. You do not have to grow them. The legislation is seriously flawed whichever way you look at it. There is a serious debate taking place in the chamber and it is enlightening. I think we all need to take a breath here. I think we need to take the time to at least have a look at how we can solve the inherent problems in this. Therefore I move:

I think that would give us the time, tonight, to at least get further counsel, and for this to be talked about by the various entities, including—and this is essential—the government. One of the problems here is that the opposition, which has the numbers, wants to oppose this bill on the matter of tax-deductibility but is caught in the position—and so are the Greens—that it therefore knocks out the amendments which would fix the problems of the tax-deductibility. We need to be able to find a mechanism to get around that problem and I suggest that we take overnight to do it.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (Senator Barnett)—Order! Senator Brown, I have a question for you. Were you moving to report progress? If you were, then no further discussion can be had on that particular motion.