Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for his question. The member for Mallee with an electorate of about 74,000 square kilometres is very aware of the agricultural sector. One of the great things that this side of the House has brought for the member for Mallee was the Wimmera-Mallee pipeline, one of the biggest engineering projects in delivery of water, and it was brought about by this side of the House. That is what we gave the people of Mallee.

What did the Labor Party give them? The Labor Party gave them a $100,000 carbon tax bill to operate it. That is basically what they gave them from that. Then we went on to the Sunraysia Modernisation Project, another massive infrastructure project for Mallee. What did the Labor Party give them? They gave them the carbon tax bill for the operation of the pumps.

There is a clear understanding of the difference between the two sides. The Labor Party gave Murray-Goulburn a $14 million a year tax bill to process the milk including between $1,300 and $7,000 a year per dairy shed. That is what the Labor Party gave them. What did we give them? We gave them the record high price for dairy product on 30 June this year.

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

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