Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

'Hear, hear,' he says. Certainly that is the case. We have the best in the world and we need to protect and preserve it.

The changes proposed in the Export Market Development Grants Amendment Bill 2013 are to deliver on the recent Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook decision to concentrate the Export Market Development Grants Scheme more on small businesses exporting to East Asian and frontier and emerging markets. The MYEFO decision and associated policy changes in this proposal will deliver annual savings of $25 million.

Labor calls them savings. They really are cuts and taxes. Failed policy is what it really is, and it is having an effect in this particular instance on our trading relations. This is not the first time I have spoken today; I have spoken a number of times, and a number of times I have spoken about particular bills as being cost savings—as in the baby bonus, on which I spoke earlier this evening. Again, these are to try to help the Treasurer, our failed Treasurer, to try to balance his books. And it is not working. The Australian public are not fools; they are not buying it. The fact is that this government cannot properly fiscally manage our economy. And so many people I speak to cannot wait for the next election.

The EMDG Scheme, administered by Austrade, partially supports export promotion expenses of eligible enterprises in order to boost exports of Australian-produced goods and services, which are, as I say, so important for our balance-of-trade figures. The EMDG Scheme reimburses up to half of eligible export promotion expenses incurred by small- to medium-sized enterprises, and then the claims are reimbursed retrospectively for expenditure incurred in the previous financial year pro rata up to the particular cap. Around 5,100 enterprises per year apply for these grants. Prior to now, the scheme has been capped at $150 million per year since 1997, except in 2008-09 and 2009-10, when a $200 million cap applied.

The MYEFO decision late last year and associated policy changes in this bill are designed to deliver annual savings—again, that word 'savings'—of $25 million. According to Labor, the changes will better help Australian exporters maximise the potential of the Asian century by increasing the number of grants available in East Asian and frontier and emerging markets from seven years' worth to eight years. We all know that this is not right; this is just typical Labor spin—typical Labor claptrap. This is more policy on the run. We cannot afford, as the member for Forrest indicated, to hurt our exporters—particularly at this time, when our balance-of-trade figures are not that good, and particularly at a time when our budget is so much in the red.

To offset the additional grant expenditure associated with an enlarged number of grants to East Asian and frontier and emerging markets, the number of grants to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union are to be reduced. The government argues that in those markets the Australian brand is already well known and accepted, and small businesses typically face fewer barriers to doing business—and that may be so. But, even though the Australian brand may well be known, why not promote it even more? Why is it necessary to keep cutting, to keep cost-shifting, to try to balance the Treasurer's failed books? And why is it that all the time the ones who are getting hit in the neck the most are Australian farmers, Australian exporters—the people who put food on our plates and on the plates of so many foreigners as well?

The government argues that the increased focus of the EMDG Scheme on emerging and frontier markets brings the EMDGS into closer alignment with Austrade's broader trade priorities following its review in 2011 and the government's Asian century policy agenda. I will just repeat that: 'Australia's broader trade priorities'.

As to what our trade priorities are or should be: the Prime Minister only last year, in quite a groundbreaking speech, actually, in Melbourne, talked about promoting and strengthening irrigation so that we could grow more food to tap into those Asian markets, but every single policy initiative by her side of government, the government that she leads, does just the opposite. I cannot understand it, nor can the citrus growers and cattle producers, nor can those wonderful lamb producers in the Riverina, who grow the best lamb in the entire nation. They cannot understand it.

They simply cannot understand why this government is doing everything in its power to just stymie them whenever they try to develop export markets, to stymie them whenever they try to have the ability to grow more food to feed our nation and others. It is hurting our balance-of-trade figures. It is hurting our ability to do business in export markets such as Indonesia. And it is hurting our farmers' and agricultural producers' ability to make a profit.

And, when the farming sector is doing it tough, regional towns are doing it tough. You do not have to go too far into my electorate to see how tough they are doing it. Farmers are having to work at two jobs—they are having to source off-farm incomes—simply because there has been bad water policy enacted by this parliament. This government is just so bogged down in green tape. I know there has been a divorce between Labor and the Greens, but still they seem to be in cahoots with one another when it comes to policy, because so much of the policy that we see from that side of government is bogged down in green tape and so often we hear the Greens leader, Senator Milne, make the catchcry and Labor just follow suit. Their policies just follow suit, and it has to stop.

It has to stop because our farmers are the world's best. Our farmers are not asking for a handout; they are just asking for a hand up, a bit of assistance, a bit of an even go, a bit of a level playing field—something that I am sure that the parliamentary secretary for agriculture knows also. I know he has offered to come to my electorate, and I will welcome him soon to come and see for himself and to talk to the sorts of people whom I talk to, because I know he would be interested. I serve on the Standing Committee on Regional Australia, and I know the good work that he did there as the deputy chair. I know he certainly has his heart in the right place. I would certainly welcome him to come to the Riverina to hear firsthand from people. This piece of legislation is not good, and it will hurt our exporters. They are extremely valuable people. I will certainly welcome the member for Braddon to come to my part of the world, hear the sorts of complaints people have and hear of the sorts of ways forward they believe we should be adopting and the sorts of policy initiatives that his government could also be implementing to help them to make ends meet and to help them not just to survive but indeed to thrive as they should. Thank you for allowing me to make those comments, Mr Deputy Speaker.

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