Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the amendment. I just had the experience of sitting through the Treasurer of Australia continue to spout the mistruths and obfuscation that we have seen with this issue in recent months, and it has just got crazy this last couple of weeks. Those opposite have not known what they are supporting or why and they are not sure who they stand for, but what we have seen is that they have not stood for small and medium businesses in this country. They have not stood for the tourism businesses that are hurting and they have not stood for the agricultural industry and horticultural businesses like the mango growers and other growers in my electorate. I was concerned that the voices from my electorate would not have the opportunity to be heard in this place, and I thank the member for Grayndler and others who have worked to make sure that the voices from our extremely disappointed industries are heard.

The problem with the Treasurer—and we see this in question time—is that he thinks that the louder he speaks, the more convincing he is or the more powerful an argument he has or the better he will be able to convince us that he knows what he is doing. Unfortunately for us, because he is the Treasurer of Australia, it is becoming more and more apparent that he does not know what he is doing. He starts yelling louder and louder during question time, when he should be explaining to us the economic vision for our country but instead is spreading mistruths, and I think that is an absolute shame. He continued the job of Joe Hockey, who 18 months ago announced that anyone working on holiday in Australia will pay tax from the first dollar they earn. We have no problem with that, except that the government wanted to impose a tax rate of 32.5 per cent. We did not hear too much from some industry bodies, unfortunately, like the National Farmers Federation, but other industry bodies were screaming—and why were they screaming? They were screaming because a major source of their labour was going to be decimated and slashed.

The effect of that can be seen if you go out onto the ground and talk to people who run small and medium tourism and horticultural businesses. People who are working the land and want to double the size of their farm have said to me, 'Luke, why would I double the size of my farm when I haven't got the labour to pick these kilometres and kilometres of fruit that is rotting on the ground?' We did some sums and we think that, conservatively, the mango industry alone in the Top End is down $70 million as a result of not having enough labour to pick the fruit. Backpacker numbers are down 30 per cent in the Top End—30. You guys purport to be the supporters of small business and medium business and yet you have cut the labour from underneath them and they are suffering. There are small tourism businesses in the Top End that are really hurting because we have had this 30 per cent drop in backpackers, who once used their services. It has been really disappointing. As a new member to this place, I have seen the way that the government have flip-flopped, going from 32 per cent to 19 per cent and down to 15 per cent—we would like them to go to 10.5—and they did it all with no modelling, none, let alone the lack of consultation that was there for everyone to see. I have farmers, growers and the tourism industry saying, 'Luke, what are they doing? Don't they want us to succeed? Don't they want to grow the north or Tassie?' Regional Australia is really hurting as a result of this backpacker tax fiasco. Of course 15 is better than 19, but it could have been better. We could have been more competitive, and that is a shame.

I want to finish by saying something on behalf of constituents of mine, Leo and Steve Skliros, who run a big mango farm. They said, 'Look, we need long-term solutions. We've got millions of dollars worth of mangoes going to waste. We've got people who want our product overseas. We don't know why the government is not supporting us.' I will continue to fight for the small and medium businesses in my electorate and hope that the government lifts its act.

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