Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to schedule 4 of the Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 3) Bill 2021. It's a fairly simple change, but one that just makes sense. I can deal with the machinery, and then talk to the real effect that it has, particularly to my people in Cowper.

Schedule 4 amends the ITAA 1997 to provide the payments are non-accessible income and non-exempt income if the payments are recovery grants made to small businesses or primary producers as part of category D measures under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 and the payments relate to floods consequent on rainfall events that occurred between 19 February and 31 March 2021 or to storms that occurred in the same period. Basically, the payments of $50,000 or $75,000 to primary producers that were made will be tax-free. What does that mean? We only have to look at the last two years at what has occurred across many of our electorates.

The farmers in my electorate suffered terribly through the drought. Many of them had to destock—some stock they'd had for many, many years. Following the droughts, they had to face the bushfires, and those bushfires weren't just in my electorate over a period of days or weeks. In the Hastings, we had a heat pit which burnt for nearly six months, which affected not only the farmers and the wine producers but also the tourist operators who lost very, very valuable income over a number of months, so they had to face not only the bushfires but also the smoke taint and smoke damage and the loss of income through tourism, because simply nobody was coming to the electorate.

Following the bushfires, our farmers again had floods. Because of the bushfires, all the topsoil was washed into the rivers. There were massive fish kills. The oyster farmers suffered devastating losses, losing two to three years of stock. If that wasn't enough, then of course the pandemic hit. Whilst that may not affect farmers, it certainly affected the businesses in the electorate where the vast majority of these businesses rely on tourism.

We've had over 12 months now of devastating impacts. Fortunately, it's coming back, but they hurt for a very long time. We then had to face further floods. Even growing up in Kempsey, where we see floods every 10 years or so, I'd certainly not seen anything like that, particularly in the Hastings in Port Macquarie and up in Rollands Plains. A wall of water that came down in a matter of hours—700 millimetres over three days that just washed everything away. Thousands of head of stock were lost, floating down the rivers and in trees, and miles and miles and kilometres and kilometres of fences were damaged. That's what our farmers have faced over the last three or four years. So to hand them $75,000 and then say, 'Hang on, we're going to tax that,' is a slap in the face. These measures change that ruling and allow them to keep that money in their pocket. Let's be honest, $75,000 for them to restock is a drop in the ocean. To get a decent bull you can pay anything up to and over $20,000. I had one gentleman come and see me who said he lost 33 head of cattle in one day; $75,000 isn't going to change his life. He has to put his hand in his pocket. Mind you, he was 80 and saying, 'Well, we're just going to have to rebuild.' Then there are the examples not of farmers but of business people. Nathan Tomkins from the Whalebone Wharf restaurant had just spent $300,000 doing the restaurant up. It was a beautiful restaurant on the water, on the Hastings. It had never flooded there before, and this wall of water came down and went all the way through it. The Prime Minister came up and spoke to him and said, 'You'll be eligible for the $75,000.' He said, 'We weren't on Newstart. We were coming back.' So that very day the Prime Minister spoke to the Treasurer and changed that rule so that he could apply for the $50,000 for the business. He has now reopened, again spending $300,000 to redo that business. Again, $50,000 is a drop in the ocean. It is the right thing we're doing, not to tax that money.

The tourist businesses across Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Coffs Harbour and Dorigo have all been affected in the past 18 months. It has been a really tough time. These grants of $50,000 and $75,000 for damage from the storm and the floods are not just money. They provide that little bit of hope, that confidence: 'The government is with us. It's helping us. It's not going to cover my costs, but at least it's there doing something.' I think this small change in the legislation acknowledges that. In the past, those grants have been taxed. The ones through the bushfires and the ones through the previous floods have been taxed. It's good that the government has recognised this, and it's good for the business owners and the farmers to see that the government listens, does things about it and changes it. I think it provides hope to those business owners and hope to those farmers who work day in, day out and who pay their taxes that we're here doing our job as politicians and a government.

This is a very simple change. It's a very sensible change. There are times when business owners and farmers feel that they're on their own, that nobody has got their back. But that is certainly not the case. These changes certainly prove that to them. I commend the changes and I commend the bill to the House.

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