George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the shadow Treasurer for proposing this matter of public importance for discussion, because there certainly is an urgent need for consistency from this government so that we can restore confidence in the economy. But, sadly, what we heard from the member for Parramatta for over half of her speech was more of the same bleating, finger-pointing, whingeing and whining about the coalition and its policies, pointing to all of the problems and all of the uncertainty that this government, after almost four years and two prime ministers, still has not addressed. That only serves to highlight the absolute deficiency there is on the treasury bench in terms of consistent, well-thought-through policies.

We had the Assistant Treasurer before that with about seven of his caucus members. Boy, Bill, you are sure going to have to do the numbers a bit better—assassination day is coming up pretty quickly! He gave us some propositions on what the government is doing about the economy. They stared at the issues, he said. Well, that was about it. Overpriced school halls, pink batts, $900 money-for-nothing cheques that went to buying plasma TVs from China—none of this saved the economy. What a joke! Neither the Assistant Treasurer nor anyone in this government had anything to do with this country's economic rebound after the GFC. It was the mining industry and the agricultural industry that saved this country from recession, not pink batts and overpriced school halls. And aren't they doing their best to kill off those industries through, firstly, the taxes that the Assistant Treasurer talked about—the carbon tax and the mining tax? The words 'spread the wealth' that he used so liberally are just socialist code for ripping out the money that is being generated in productive regions like Mackay, Townsville, Central and North Queensland and WA and funnelling it off to Sydney, Melbourne and, not to forget, to fill in the ever-growing $107-plus billion worth of government debt that the Assistant Treasurer allowed to be ramped up to $250 billion when he came into this place in the dead of night with his amendment bills to the budget.

What inconsistency we have from the government on a range of different issues. I am going to highlight two of them. We have had this absolute stuff-up of a policy on the live animal exports front. We have seen in the last month just how reckless this inconsistent government is. There was a whole lot of finger-pointing going on after the nation witnessed the barbaric cruelty to Aussie bred cattle on Four Corners. Some blamed Meat and Livestock Australia, some blamed LiveCorp and some blamed the entire industry. But the reality is that a lot of the blame lies with this Gillard Labor government for its slow reaction and indifference to the issue.

Several months after the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Joe Ludwig, became aware of the footage of cruelty shown on Four Corners, the government finally reacted. And—would you believe it?—they got it right the first go. They did what should have been done as soon as they knew of the cruelty footage when Animals Australia made the minister aware of it. But, before Four Corners, we had the member for Page moving motions that were all but trying to shut down the live export industry. Then we had pressure from people like the member for Fremantle and the member for Wills, two people from those great cattle-grazing electorates of Fremantle and Wills, telling caucus and Minister Ludwig what was to happen—and that was that they were going to shut down the industry. So the government buckled. It was a shining case of inconsistency. The minister buckled by completely banning live cattle exports to Indonesia and, bizarrely, even to abattoirs that use the humane process of stunning. By doing so, the government have now firmly pointed the finger of blame at the entire cattle industry, because they are the only ones penalised by this decision. The government are refusing to compensate graziers, who stand to lose a multimillion dollar export market, instead saying that the MLA should pay when they were the only ones trying to improve practices in Indonesia. The MLA did not ban the live exports; the government did. They should compensate. Better still, they should show some consistency and some compassion for the farmers in North Queensland and reopen live exports to those Indonesian abattoirs whose practices are in accordance with international standards. This is people's lives we are talking about.

A lot of people in this room and around the country may have seen the email doing the rounds from Mr Scot Braithwaite. Scot is the nephew of a former member for Dawson, Ray Braithwaite. He has also been associated with the live export industry for decades, including being employed as a head stockman. I want to take a moment to quote a little bit out of Scot's email where he refers to abattoirs in Indonesia. He says:

One of these facilities is operated and owned by a large Australian pastoral house … The operation is run by a North Queensland man who, through his absolute dedication to excellence, has built a feedlot and slaughtering system that his company, the industry and himself can be very proud of. The system is closed, or the cattle are already killed through their own abattoir. They import 20,000 to 25,000 cattle a year. They have been doing this for the last five years. Why should they be shut down? For what reason could anyone justify closing this operation down, especially without even bothering to look at what goes on.

There are many other abattoirs in Indonesia like it. Why can't trade to those abattoirs be opened? These fakers claim that they are out to protect animals, and what do they do? They vote to remove Australia from the situation, which does nothing for the cattle from other nations or from Indonesia that are going to end up at the abattoirs that are not doing the right thing.

It has occurred to me that there is something missing from this blame game. They are quick to blame Australian farmers and the industry, but they have not said anything about the religion that actually inspires the torture of the cattle there. I find that very hypocritical. We have not heard the member for Wills, the member for Fremantle or the member for Page raise that issue. But they are very quick to sink the boot into the farmers regardless of the consequences.

If we want to have a look further at government inconsistency that is hurting our economy, then there is no greater example than the carbon tax fiasco. The whole country is waiting for some decision and consistency on this issue. The best consistency that we could get would be for the Prime Minister to stick to her election promise: 'There will be no carbon tax under a government that I lead.' The best consistency we could get would be for the Treasurer to stick to his election statements. Firstly, on Meet the Press on 15 August 2010, he said, 'What we rejected is this hysterical allegation that somehow we are moving towards a carbon tax.' And, secondly, on The7.30 Report on 12 August 2010, he was asked to rule out a carbon tax and said: 'We made our position very clear. We have ruled it out.' We could get some consistency from the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and his department, which lists the first of six priorities in its corporate plan this year as being 'delivery of the Government's election commitments'. As I said, the election commitment of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer was that there would be no carbon tax. Perhaps they could give some consistency on this or change the corporate plan to say 'delivery of the Greens election commitments'.

The reality is that there are a couple of ways out of this inconsistency. The government could drop the tax, but I understand and we understand that that would be a very embarrassing thing to do and it would hurt the Greens feelings. So here is another clue for you. How about having a plebiscite? How about letting the people decide? But you will not do that because you are all about hypocrisy and not about democracy.

The Queensland Resources Council has done studies that suggest that in my region there are about half a dozen mines in the Bowen Basin, serviced by Mackay, that would be under threat. They say that worse still is the impact it would have on investment in mining and local industry. We have another view on this matter from the Minister for Resources and Energy, who said that 'no-one can rule out a mine or two closing' under the carbon tax. I wonder if he was saying, 'It is just a mine or two,' when those mines employ thousands of people whose families will suffer because this tax will rip away their jobs. The Mayor of Mackay, Mr Col Meng, described this tax as just another grab for money. He said:

I am very disappointed to say the least that we now have another tax. I'd see regional Australia as certainly going to be the people that bear the brunt of this tax … because transportation and fuel costs will go up … It's just another grab, another tax … and I can't say we are going to get value for money.

I could point to Mick Crowe from the local mining service company, who spoke against the carbon tax. I could point to the chairman of Mackay Canegrowers, Mr Paul Schembri, who thinks that the carbon tax is going to be a 'lead weight in the saddlebags of the sugar industry'. I could point to dozens of people in industries in my electorate. I could probably sit here for another 10 minutes and tell you of some of the other companies around the nation. But I have to say that the only thing consistent about this government is their ability to stuff things up. As a result the economy suffers, the people suffer and the whole nation suffers. (Time expired)

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