Senator IAN MACDONALD (6:02 PM) —There are only a couple of minutes left in this debate on the Finance and Public Administration References Committee report on native vegetation laws, greenhouse gas abatement and climate change measures, and I want to make a contribution. Fortunately, no-one listening would ever take any notice of Senator Doug Cameron. He is, after all, a member of the Labor Party, and with the promises they make and never keep you can understand that the people of Australia are now in a situation where they treat with a grain of salt anything Mr Rudd says and anything any of his minions, like Senator Doug Cameron, say, because they have been lied to so many times that they have given up taking any notice of or attributing any veracity to things said by Mr Rudd or by people like Senator Cameron.

Notwithstanding that, I am rather flattered that Senator Cameron has gone back 15 years to look up my words of wisdom in this place. I feel rather touched that Senator Cameron would do that, but perhaps it is worth while just to have a reality check. Back in those days that Senator Cameron was talking about, the Queensland Labor government was determined to stop tree clearing and, in fact, to destroy the value in most properties in Queensland. At the time, the then coalition government was trying to work with the Queensland government and say: ‘Look, don’t do this across the board. We understand the Queensland government’s desire to stop wide-scale tree clearing, but let’s talk about this. Let’s talk to the farmers about it. Let’s talk to the landowners. Let’s try to get a result that is good for the environment, good for farming communities and good for landowners.’ For a considerable amount of time, the Commonwealth government was talking with the Queensland government and urging it to work with landowners to come to a resolution. The Commonwealth government said: ‘Yes, let’s get a negotiated outcome so that everyone wins, and we might contribute some compensation. Provided the Queensland government is prepared to pay compensation to landowners, the Commonwealth will put in some compensation.’ This was how the negotiations were going, and then in the middle of it one morning, without any warning, we woke up and the Queensland government had just made this unilateral announcement that there would be no tree clearing whatsoever and very little compensation. At that stage the federal government, having been completely outflanked in these negotiations we were having with landowners and the Queensland government, simply withdrew from the whole question. That is the truth of the matter. I am not going to have time to finish this, so I seek leave to continue my remarks at a later time.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.