Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This motion is nothing but a stunt by the member for Calare. As he well knows, the minister has in fact arranged briefings for him on the status of the meat industry and has also advised him that the government is continuing to work on a sector-by-sector basis on the necessary reforms to the agricultural sector of this country. The member for Calare has been made aware of that and could take up the opportunity of the briefings that the minister has arranged for him.

In the year 2000 the coalition government introduced a cost recovery for export services and while it later introduced a 40 per cent rebate on export services costs, this was a temporary rebate that should have lapsed. The fact of the matter is that when the member for Wide Bay was in the cabinet the Howard government had intended the rebate would finish in June 2008. It had made no provision whatsoever for it in the forward estimates.

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