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

It is unbelievable. They are paying them US$630 million. We are imposing these restrictions on our own fishers, yet here we have a catch that will be four times Australia's total fish production.

The summary of the concerns of the AMA is that the government has not identified a single threat to substantiate large-scale marine closures. Here is an interesting statistic: Australia imports in excess of 70 per cent of its seafood, yet compensation for consumers and how to deal with our food security concerns have not been addressed in any way. We have heard that time and time again. We heard the shadow agriculture minister—more importantly, the shadow minister for food security—talk about the lack of consultation by this particular government on so many matters concerning agriculture. Again, here we have another example of the government's lack of or poor consultation with those affected in the industry. They do not care if people go out of business. That is the crux of the matter. They do not care about the farmers and the fishers of Australia. They just care about the cobbled way this government is held together by the so-called regional Independents and by the Greens.

To those people listening, I would say that the very worst Labor member is better than the best Greens member. I thought the parliamentary secretary at the table, the Parliamentary Secretary for Trade, was going to interject on me. But he is not going to interject, because he knows what I say is true. To anybody listening, I would encourage them to put the Greens last on their ballot paper on 14 September. Put them last because they do nothing but damage our country. They are job destroyers. They hurt our farmers and they hurt our businesses. They have a social agenda which is un-Australian. I know the minister at the table, Minister Burke, and the parliamentary secretary beside him are in full agreement with me because otherwise they would be going to the dispatch box to tell me to get back on track.

This disallowance motion—

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