John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Hansard source

because this is a bigger lie than the L-A-W law tax. It puts that one in the shade. If the Prime Minister has already broken her promise to Senator Bob Brown over this carbon tax, let us face it: they are going to include agriculture. Bob Brown and agriculture? They are about as compatible as flame and ice-cream.

The government have, in three short years, already devastated the agricultural sector by draining resources and exposing our borders, as well as our domestic and export industries, to exotic pests and noxious diseases. The government have slashed R&D. Let me tell you that R&D is the only thing that the agricultural industry in Australia believe can get them through to the productivity levels they need anyway—let alone the productivity levels which the minister for agriculture apparently, in the last couple of days, told ABARE that farmers would need to gain to get over the recent floods et cetera. That is one way of doing it! It is better than any government assistance, obviously! R&D is critical to productivity but has been slashed, the industry is not going to get any help with the floods or whatever it is and the government has decided there are no more exceptional circumstances with regard to drought. That is fine, I guess. But, if you put a carbon tax for agriculture on top of all that, there are not too many places for farmers to go. The government has totally ignored agriculture in the recent floods and rains. The drought has been taken over by floods, so everything has to go.

It has occurred to me that there might be something very cunning going on. With regard to the jobs the Treasurer could not explain, they could put people to work catching Asian bees, which the government are not going to do anything—(Time expired)

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