A number of broad issues relating to the impact of taxation incentives for the establishment carbon sink forests were examined during the committee's consideration of this legislation. These included:

• the impact on prime agricultural land;
• the impact on rural communities and industries;
• enforceability of carbon sequestration property rights over consecutive landowners;
• the permanency of new plantings;
• the requirement that plantings be contiguous;
• incentives for biodiverse planting;
• the potential for undesirable taxation outcomes;
• the need for the tax incentives;
• Managed Investment Schemes; and
• recognition of other forms of carbon stores.

The members of the committee were unable to agree on issues raised during the inquiry, so this report includes two dissenting reports.