Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

In my electorate of Dawson, we have over 1,500 farmers and farm managers. We are the biggest sugarcane-growing region in the whole of Australia. We produce the beautiful Bowen mangoes. We have massive horticultural crops. The Bowen and Burdekin food bowls produce tomatoes, capsicums, beans, corn and a whole lot more, which feed the whole nation. That's not to mention the beef producers who call my electorate home. That's why, when the Albanese Labor government keeps coming for my people and for my farmers, things stop being political and start being personal. Each and every time I think things can't get any worse for our farmers, those on the other side prove me wrong.

The Albanese Labor government's latest brainchild is what they're calling the 'biosecurity protection levy'. This new levy, which was one of the most appalling take-outs of last year's budget and which was rejigged in the lead-up to this one, essentially amounts to a new $150 million fresh food tax on the men and women who grow our nation's food and fibre. It is a tax on our hardworking, underappreciated and undersupported farmers, who supply this country with the food and fibre that we need to sustain life. It is a tax on the individuals and families who make their livelihoods working the land and who support our economy. It is a tax on the same individuals and families who are being ripped off at every turn by supply chains, by Mother Nature, by the supermarkets and now by the Albanese Labor government.

The Labor government will tell you they support our farmers, that they deserve their respect, that they deserve a government that listens to their concerns and acts on them, and that we need to ensure that our agriculture survives. So why, Minister, did you and your government decide to bring in a policy to tax our Australian farmers for the biosecurity risk posed by their international competitors? Under this current Labor government, our primary industries and our farmers are under threat. No other country in the world taxes their own farmers for the biosecurity risk posed by international imports—none at all. This current Albanese Labor government is treating our farmers with contempt. It's risking our food security, and it's weakening the future of Australian agriculture. The Prime Minister said, 'No-one will be left behind; everyone gets a fair go.' Where is the fair go for our farmers and their families? This government is not listening, and they're not acting in the best interests of regional Australia.

My farmers are hurting right now. Our people are hurting, and our nation is hurting. It all starts with the primary industries that Minister Watt is so intent on damaging. We all know the importance of sustainably funding biosecurity into the future, but taxing our primary producers is not the answer. Right now, our Aussie farmers are in the fight of their lives. If they lose this fight, we all lose. I can assure our agriculture sector that the federal coalition stands shoulder to shoulder with our farmers. We will fight to get rid of this outrageous tax.

In March this year the government rammed the legislation to establish the biosecurity protection levy through the House of Representatives. It passed, despite opposition from the coalition and the crossbench. Only Labor MPs supported it. Now the legislation is stuck in the Senate, and farmers and industry groups have been left hanging. So I ask the minister: What is the government going to do? What is their plan—their next move, their next strategy—for this tax? Is it still the government's intention to introduce a levy on 1 July? If the levy is not ready to be implemented on 1 July, how does the government intend to fill the $50 million black hole in the budget? If the biosecurity protection levy is up and running by 1 July, just three weeks away, have the government informed the industry, farmers and the 7,000 collection agents around Australia that they're ready to pay and collect?

Finally, members in this place will be aware that, instead of taxing farmers to pay for the biosecurity risks of their foreign competitors, the coalition has been calling on the government to establish an importer container levy. This would apply a charge to cargo coming into the country. This would target those that create the risk. Given the failure of biosecurity, will the minister now consider this approach?

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