STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator BELL (New South Wales—One Nation Whip) (13:52): We all know the Albanese Labor government is obsessed with destroying productive Australian agriculture in the pursuit of their net zero obsession. The latest example of this, a tragic example, is Rushy Lagoon. Rushy Lagoon is Tasmania's largest farm—prime agricultural land with a very important role in Australia's beef industry—and it is about to be carved up for a project to replace it with pine tree plantations across thousands of hectares.

Why is this? This is because Labor has created a twisted system where carbon credits, taxpayer finance and net zero targets create a sick incentive to destroy productive farmland jobs and regional communities. This is why One Nation will scrap net zero.

We will end the obsession with net zero. Let us be clear about the facts: Labor's Clean Energy Finance Corporation is putting 69 million taxpayer dollars into this project, while the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has approved foreign backed purchase. Tasmanian agriculture will live with the consequences of this terrible mistake for decades.

In total, almost $80 million of taxpayer money is financing this sale to a foreign investment vehicle to plant pine trees over farmland on top of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation funds. Some $8.8 million of Commonwealth money is being provided by the trees. Taxpayers are helping finance the purchase of Tasmania's largest farm, and they're paying for the trees to be planted over the top of it.

Tasmanian farmers are expected to compete against that. If Canberra was prepared to put that much money behind the purchase of Rushy Lagoon, where was the support available to Tasmanian farmers who wanted to keep this as an agricultural asset? We have the perfect opportunity to support farmers and yet Labor has chosen to abandon them.

There are a lot of questions that need to be answered here because, as always with these deals, a lot of secrecy is involved. We want answers, and we want net— (Time expired)