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

No? Well, that was a bad decision! We welcome them from everywhere. We'd even have the member from Dawson come all the way down from Queensland if he cared to spend some of his money in the Hunter region to attend one of our concerts and to learn firsthand the very fact that we do have the world's greatest wines. Or maybe he would take a balloon ride. Maybe the member for Dawson might even get married in one of the great wedding venues we have in our great Hunter wine country!

But I do digress just a little! I come back to the main point that I'm making and, of course, that point is that every adverse decision they make for the wine industry is an adverse impact on wine tourism and on our regional economies. So, it's very sad that the government has sought to turn reform into a revenue grab. We appreciate the half backdown and the sector appreciates the half backdown, but, sadly, it's not enough.

See this speech in context