Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to admit that, after hearing Labor’s position—and obviously you have locked yourself in there—I am disappointed. You have let me off the hook, because now the bill is going to go through. Apart from the theatrics of crossing the floor, the pressure is off me. The bill will go through, it will go to the lower house and it will happen. Unfortunately, the nightmare has just begun for those people who have their houses on the line over this piece of legislation. For those people in the poorest electorates in our nation, the nightmare has just started. Maybe in your next caucus meeting you should have a think about who the afflicted is here and who you went in to bat for—which side of the debate you went in to bat for tonight. It is a shame. It goes to show that a little talking goes a long way.

I wonder what suggestions you might come up with for regional Australia. Do have any other suggestions for regional Australia? Is there something else out there that you might want to enlighten us on regarding how we take these people forward? All I can say is that, when they start ringing up tomorrow, I will tell them about clause 43.5, page 16, lines 31 to 32 and that, apparently, we were closing a loophole. We were closing a loophole that, if it existed before, exists now—it is still there—and the people who were going to be the benefactors of a biorenewable fuel industry are not going to be regional Australians; they will be the major oil companies.