Senator MILNE (Tasmania—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (12:43): Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement. The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for two minutes. Senator MILNE: I just want to respond on this particular motion which is actually calling on the government to withdraw the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of Tasmania on the basis that a withdrawal of that agreement would in some way guarantee the cultural heritage of Tasmanian timber communities. In fact, it is exactly the other way around because the timber communities actually approached— Opposition senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Bob Brown: Mr President, I rise on a point of order. There are interjections coming from— The PRESIDENT: Senator Bob Brown, I was aware of the interjections. I called to order— Senator Bob Brown: the conservatives and they should be called to order. You did quite right there. The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Bob Brown! Senator MILNE: As I was saying, the timber communities approached the conservation movement to work out a set of principles, which led to discussions with the state and federal governments to develop an intergovernmental agreement which will deliver substantial funding into rural and regional Tasmania for the kind of transitional assistance that will give those communities some hope of transitioning out of native forest logging. In the absence of that money, those communities are losing jobs and people and are going broke right now. If this agreement is upheld by the federal government to the letter of the law, it will provide some future for those communities. They will have no future unless this federal money assists with retraining and transitioning. Question put: That the motion ( Senator Madigan's ) be agreed to. The Senate divided. [12:50] (The President—Senator Hogg) Question negatived.