Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

That is what growers are telling me. I am not calling them; they are emailing me; they are coming through my door; they are on the phone saying , 'We will not be able to compete at 19.' But I want to come back to the NFF. We rang the NFF on budget night—not a problem. Then, of course, just like the government when things got hot, they decided they had a problem with this tax and put forward, very early, this idea of striking it at 19 per cent. That is an arbitrary figure. Some might argue it is the first tax rate, but it is arbitrary in any case. And didn't they fight ferociously for 19 per cent! Just like members in this place, they criticised me and the Labor Party uphill and down dale because we would not support 19 per cent. If we had taken their advice, we would have 19 per cent today. That was their advice.

We should remember that the crossbenchers in the Senate have no power while ever the opposition is voting with the government. But we were never going to vote with the government on this matter. It is the Labor Party that has dragged this government screaming to 15 per cent. But they have not done enough. They need to get real and come to 10½ per cent, as is the nature of our amendment. Why 10½? Because it is the headline rate which matches New Zealand. When backpackers in Ireland and Europe generally are looking at Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada as destinations, they do not get the calculator out and compute award rates and average tax rates and all of that: they just look at the headline rate. This is a sensible proposition.

I look forward to Minister Ciobo making a contribution to this debate. It was only a matter of weeks ago, maybe a month ago, that the minister for tourism was in the UK on a pop-up beach declaring to the world that the backpacker tax had been fixed because it was now going to be 19 per cent. What contempt for this parliament that he was over there spruiking 19 per cent before the parliament had even deliberated on the bill concerned! Well, doesn't he look silly! We talk about the golden goose that has been cooked. I think Minister Ciobo has been cooked—well and truly.

Let me turn to the minister of agriculture, our Deputy Prime Minister. Have you ever seen one person emit so much spin in your life? The amount of misleading he has been doing on this backpacker tax matter is a disgrace. It was not his tax. It was not his idea. Aussie workers were going to be paying more tax than backpackers. It was the Labor Party's idea! It is just unbelievable that this Deputy Prime Minister, no less, is prepared to stand in this place—and, worse, outside in front of the cameras, where he is not covered by privilege and protected from defamation laws—and lie. There is no other word for it. I am sorry if that is not quite parliamentary, but there is no other word for it. The Deputy Prime Minister just lies to the Australian community.

On his colleagues: a week or so ago, two National Party senators crossed the floor, and three cabinet ministers abstained from a vote. They told us they stood up for the farmers. What did they cross the floor on? The Adler shotgun. I am not denying that the Adler is an important issue. It is true: farmers need firearms; no doubt about that. Whether they need nine shots is an entirely different debate, to have elsewhere. They crossed the floor on the shotgun, but not one member of the National Party, nor indeed any Liberal representing a regional seat, has been prepared to cross the floor on the backpacker tax, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence that horticulturalists, in particular, are being hurt by this new tax. How is this explained? How can you cross the floor on a shotgun but not cross the floor to defend your farmers? It defies any logic whatsoever.

I am going to read them into the Hansard. I hope I do not leave anyone out; I do not want to offend them: the members for Barker, Durack, Hinkler, Mallee, Calare, Dawson, Riverina, Parkes, Gilmore, Leichhardt, Flynn, Capricornia, New England—the Deputy Prime Minister doing his own people in—Gippsland, O'Connor, Wide Bay, Page, Maranoa, Lyne, Cowper, Wright, Fairfax, Forrest and Corangamite. All are people with significant horticultural or other farming activities in their electorates but they have gone missing—not like the members for Longman and Braddon, and others who are not here, like the members for Lyons and Richmond. The member for Perth understands farmers better than they do on this. He has been one of the most vocal critics of all, and he is from Perth. He gets it. He understands how important this is to Western Australia. The member for Durack—we will see what she has to say—is completely deserting her people, just like the member for Capricornia. I suspect some of them will not be back. They should think about crossing the floor now in this parliament, because it may well and truly be their only opportunity. And I question how much of a future Barnaby Joyce has got as the leader of that hopeless party.

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