Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

You have resolved it, have you? You think now that everything is hunky dory, that everything is happy, that you have done the right thing and that the people in your electorate are going to thank you for coming down firstly from 32½ per cent to 19 per cent. That is good. You have done well there. When they said: would you like, 10 ½ per cent or 19 per cent? What did you say? I will go for the 19 per cent, thank you very much? It is absurd. When they say: how about 15 per cent? Yes I will take 15 per cent—hands up. Well here is an opportunity to bring it down to 10½ per cent. When the vote comes on, just walk over the aisle and vote with us—show some guts. Look after your constituents and look after their interests. He is a lovely bloke, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. I know he is thinking to himself: here is my opportunity to differentiate myself from my parliamentary colleagues. Here is an opportunity for you, Minister, to show some gumption and do something reasonable for your electorate.

We see time and time again the Treasurer come in here emboldened to describe us on this side as being conspiratorial, telling us we have got no vision, no standards, that we are corrupt—all the sorts of mealy mouthed stupid words that come out of his mouth almost every day. What has he done? He has gone from 32 ½ per cent to 19 per cent—and there is no room for any more movement—and he is very pleased now to be able to accept 15 per cent because that is a reasonable compromise. It is not good enough. The Australian public expect a lot more from us in this place. When you introduced the 32½ per cent in the first place, the National Farmers' Federation described, as the member for Hunter said, how they were blindsided by this approach because there had been no consultation, just as there had been no consultation about the 15 per cent. You have an opportunity here to do the right thing by the Australian community, to do the right thing by Australian workers and do the right thing by those travelling to this country to work as backpackers by giving them an incentive to come here, because we know the workforce has dropped off.

What do we say to those people who have lost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars as a result of fruit not being picked this year because of the stupid decisions taken by this government? Whose responsibility is it? Are you prepared to own up to it? What does the Prime Minister say when he visits regional Australia? Does he say, 'I wanted 32 ½ per cent. You did not want that but that is what we wanted. Then we went to 19 per cent. Oh, bad luck, I do not know what impact it has had on your communities.' We know what the impact is, Prime Minister, Treasurer, agricultural minister.

The agriculture minister, for God's sake, what do we say about this man? What can we say about this man? Now he is a true representative of the bunyip aristocracy—there is no doubt about that—coming here feigning indignation every second day and then just basically saying whatever happens to come into his mind. He opens his mouth and lets the wind blow his tongue around. It is about time he changed his behaviour. It is about time he thought before he spoke. It is about time that he understood the reasonableness of the position which is being adopted by the Labor Party in this debate. It is about time he said to his fellow members of the National Party and indeed the government: 'We should be supporting this 10½ per cent because it is the right and reasonable thing to do. It is fair, it treats people appropriately and it is not a disincentive for backpackers to come to this country.'

The Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources also should admit the failings of the system currently and the fact that people have got fruit lying on the ground as a direct result of the stupidity of the government and the decision makers within the government and the policies of the government. It is not anybody else's fault, just theirs. I say to my community, 'When you look at these people, look very closely. They do not bear great gifts. They come here and tell you fibs, they mislead you, they tell you all sorts of stories, they try to malign the Labor Party for standing up for your interests but the only people who are standing up for your interests are indeed the Labor Party, not your supposed friends in the National Party or the Liberal Party.'

Now is the time for the Liberal Party and the National Party to show that they are prepared to do something which is reasonable and adopt the 10½ per cent, which the Labor Party is proposing, and amend the legislation we have before the House.

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