Managed Investment Schemes

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has called on the Rudd government to reveal how many millions of taxpayers' dollars have been lost by failed Managed Investment Schemes.

This follows the collapse of Timbercorp and now Great Southern Plantations. One estimate puts the total effective subsidy to Managed Investment Schemes at $4.7 billion over the last decade, but the amount that has gone into get-rich-quick plantation schemes is not clear.

Senator Brown said the government should make public how much money has been poured into these ill-conceived MIS schemes, which were avidly promoted by the then Treasurer Peter Costello, Forestry Minister Wilson Tuckey and senior Tasmanian Liberal Eric Abetz during the period of the Howard government.

"But Labor backed these schemes all the way," Senator Brown said.

"The tax breaks for carbon sink forests should be urgently reviewed in light of the Managed Investment Scheme debacle," Senator Brown said.