Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Colbeck does tempt one to look a little bit at his and his party’s record in Tasmania. I remember a couple of elections ago when at state level they promised they would protect shopping hours because there were hundreds of jobs at stake. But within six months of the Liberals getting in they had broken that promise and hundreds of jobs went west as a result.

It is interesting that Senator Colbeck has been supporting tax breaks for the huge combines which want to put in plantations, closing down small businesses—small farmers, potato growers and dairy farmers—right across Tasmania. They do not get the breaks but Gunns and the big plantation owners do—that is what Senator Colbeck supports. It is interesting to note that, when I brought legislation in here to have fair labelling so that ‘Made in Australia’ meant made in Australia, Labor and the Liberals voted down the anticheating legislation, so that people in supermarkets see ‘Made in Australia’ and buy a product thinking it is made in Australia when in fact very often the ingredients are not. Of course that puts farmers right across Australia at a disadvantage compared to the big combines, the multinationals who bring in cheaper produce from elsewhere around the world.

When it comes to the fishing industry, Senator Colbeck did not know that the government had in mind some reserves around Tasmania, and he was not consulted. When the government announced it, there was a backlash and he found himself in front of protest meetings by fishermen, trying to explain it and change it around. The Greens were not involved in dumping that without consultation with the community, but the government was, and he can defend that as best he can.

Everywhere you look in Tasmania, the Greens have a superior record to that of the Labor Party and the Liberal Party in defending small operators, locally owned businesses, small farmers and small producers. But what is germane at the moment and what is testing the big parties—and what they do not like—is Senator Joyce’s amendment to give the independents some protection against the expanding market share of the big companies. When it gets down to it, they are not arguing against the rationale, because they know they cannot defend their position on that. They are arguing with the wording of his amendment. Senator Joyce has said, ‘Well, fix it up.’ The time-honoured practice is that, if there is a good amendment and it is accepted by the government, we pass it. If there is to be a terminological change to it or a closing of loopholes, that is done in the other place, it is brought back here and we accept it. That is the way it goes with private amendments.

There is a spurious debate going on here by the Labor and Liberal parties. They oppose this amendment. They oppose protecting the independents in this way. We will see that in the vote in a moment. When all is said and done, it is the vote that counts. Senator Colbeck can get up and take on the Greens. I am happy to debate him, because in the end he will lose on who defends small business and on who looks after Tasmanians at home. We can really get into some good debates on that—I would welcome it—but this is not the place to do that. We are debating Senator Joyce’s amendment, which has merit. I have not heard either Labor or Senator Colbeck state that they do not support the merit of his amendment. They are saying that it is not written the right way, it is not this and it is not that. That is a spurious argument. They are either defending the protection of independent retailing, which this amendment goes to, or they are not. And the truth is that they are not.