senate debating food vs carbon credits, page-2

Senate debate questions tax breaks on tree plantations

Wednesday, 25/06/2008

The Coalition and the Greens have teamed up to try to persuade the Federal Government not to give companies tax breaks for planting trees.

The Coalition first proposed the plan to give carbon sink forests tax breaks, to try to tackle climate change.

But Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan now says the legislation, being debated in the Senate today, was a mistake.

The Green's Christine Milne says she's put forward an amendment to remove the tree tax break, because rural communities could be destroyed.

"This will lead to the loss of more farming land to plantations, and there is not the requirement that they be mixed species, there is no hydrological assessment," she says.

"There is no impact on what it might do to cane farmers, or to dairy farmers or to any other farmers or districts."

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200806/s2285319.htm