Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is an insult to rural Australia. I want to speak just about the rural matters. To say that this is about money is an insult. You do not come here if you are about money. I would like to put this to bed. I will not refer to the generous speech that Senator Ray made, because it is too insulting. You would only come here for the money if you were a bloody crook, in my view. You do not come here for the money. You come here to do good for your country.

I want to put paid to the idea that this could have gone off to the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport and to tell why. Three weeks ago, I did an interview with the ABC up here because Australian farmers are being ripped off by a world cartel in fertilisers and chemicals. It is a bloody insult to Australia’s farmers, who have to cop it.