Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will be opposing the Agriculture (Biosecurity Protection) Levies Bill 2024 and the other legislation which ushers in a new tax for Australia's farmers. Our farmers make an extraordinary contribution to the life of our nation. They feed and clothe Australians and many people around the globe. They battle drought, floods, bushfires, plagues and way too much government red tape. Agricultural production has been a crucial plank in the economic success of Australia. In 2022-23 the value of agricultural exports reached $79.9 billion, which was a record high. Given this extraordinary contribution, it is outrageous that our farmers should be slugged with a new tax to pay for biosecurity, which is the responsibility of all Australians, not just farmers. It's also concerning that, in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, the government is going to add to agricultural production costs, which will end up making this crisis even worse.

I note that the agricultural sector has strongly opposed the introduction of this new tax on our farmers. Barry Large, Chair of Grain Producers Australia and a WA grower, said:

Australian producers take biosecurity seriously on our farms every single day …

That's why we already pay significant amounts to fund biosecurity protections directly within our own businesses.

We also pay directly through other compulsory industry levies that raise hundreds of millions of dollars—including biosecurity levies.

We've been calling for increased funding and protections to make the system better and fairer for producers with increased accountability and shared responsibility, but this proposal in its current form is grossly unfair and fundamentally flawed and needs to be reversed.

WoolProducers Australia CEO Jo Hall has said:

Farmers are facing ever increasing pressures to produce food that's affordable, and the highest quality in the world, whilst others rake-in record profits …

This move by the Federal Government will only amplify these production pressures by hitting farmers with another tax that's nothing more than double dipping and cost-shifting on biosecurity.

To those organisations you can add NSW Farmers, which points out that this new tax:

… would impose additional costs on the very farmers who already paid significant levies for biosecurity efforts, and bore the cost of dealing with previous biosecurity failures such as Varroa mite and Red Imported Fire Ant.

NSW Farmers Biosecurity Committee chair Ian McColl also points out:

… there is no container levy imposed on importers, despite the threats to our national biosecurity coming from overseas.

It beggars belief that you would hit farmers up with a new biosecurity tax and not the importers who represent the biosecurity risk.

It's not just NSW Farmers who oppose this new tax. The Victorian Farmers Federation has been vocal in its opposition to the new tax, as have the National Farmers Federation and a host of other farming organisations. I had a recent conversation with Orange area orchardist Guy Gaeta about this issue. He didn't varnish his words when he said:

It's disgusting. These people are off their rocker. I'm not going to pay it.

I should add that that quote is the part of the conversation that is suitable for printing in Hansard. Farmers around our nation would agree with Guy. This new tax is a very poor way to treat the farmers who have done so much for our country and is a very clumsy and ill-conceived way to fund biosecurity measures. I will be opposing it, and I urge all members of the crossbench in the Senate to join me in voting against it. I also urge other members of the House of Representatives to vote against it. Our hardworking farmers simply deserve better.

See this speech in context