Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Is the minister aware of concerns in rural communities about state native vegetation laws? How has the government responded to these concerns and how does this approach compare with other responses?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for the question. The state native vegetation laws introduced more than a decade ago have for a long time provoked a good deal of concern and anger among many farmers throughout Australia. When they were introduced we were in opposition and did not complain about them. Some of those opposite—including the former Treasurer—when they were in government took credit for them. This debate received publicity in a new way over summer when one particular New South Wales farmer climbed up a pole on his property and engaged in an action of self-harm. For a long time in this place both governments and oppositions have observed the principle that when someone engages in an action of self-harm neither would gain a political dividend from it. I saw this many times as shadow minister for immigration, and I have no evidence that the current shadow minister for immigration has behaved in a different fashion. We get calls from the media saying: ‘There has been an action of self-arm. This is a free kick for you. Why don’t you go out and do some media.’ The rule has always been that none of us in this place would engage in that way because we do not want to be the sort of country where self-harm is a way of getting political attention.

There is no grey area in this. It has remained the situation that you do not say, ‘I’ll criticise the self-harm but I’ll give them some publicity anyway,’ because we know where that would lead. I do not know what level of self-obsession, erratic behaviour or twisted morality it would take for someone to view an action of self-harm as a political opportunity, but that is exactly what the Leader of the Opposition did a few weeks ago. I do not know how you can trust somebody who is willing to do that.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let us remember that the rally held outside Parliament House by a number of farmers was no ordinary rally; it was directly linked to an action of self-harm. Indeed, the publicity for that rally described the place where the self-harm was being committed as ‘a tower of hope’. And this was off the back of a situation in country Australia where issues of self-harm are well and truly alive, with men in country Australia at double the suicide rate of men in urban Australia. No-one from the government would have anything to do with that rally. The country Independents had nothing to do with that rally. Indeed, the National Farmers Federation—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. That diatribe is right outside the standing orders. If the minister wishes to make aspersions, there are proper forms of the House to do it, and question time is not it.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have listened carefully to the contribution by the minister. We are often in a predicament where things are said which are very robust and cause concern. There is an understanding that, regrettably, from time to time these types of comments and hard-hitting criticism are made, but there has to be care shown in the way they are articulated.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, with the greatest respect to you, and in the interests of maintaining order in the House, the answer from this minister is embarrassingly over the top. It is offensive and he has gone too far already. I think you should sit him down for his own good and for the good of the parliament.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business has put a point of view, if not a point of order. The minister has the call and I hope he is coming to the conclusion of his answer.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Farmers Federation, against great pressure from many of their own membership, refused to have anything to do with that rally, based on good principle. The attendance there taught us nothing about the issue but a lot about the Leader of the Opposition—erratic, self-obsessed and with twisted morality. It is a lesson which will not be forgotten.