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

It is very rare, to be honest, that I would agree with the Greens. But tonight is going to be one of those nights. This is a peculiar piece. I am a little old bush accountant. I can assure you that an idea where you plant a crop, get an up-front tax deduction and get a turbocharged MIS that gets planted in prime agricultural land will drive out the local hardware store, drive out the local agronomist, drive out the local schoolteacher and drive out the local sugarcane producer. And we are going to sit here and let you plant this on us because of some little quirk that you have stitched up with someone? This is a load of rubbish, and the duty of any senator here tonight is to call it for what it is. This is a load of rubbish and you have to be pulled up for this. I cannot work out, for the life of me, how you have managed to get this far without this being pulled up. Now you have got some foreshadowed amendment in the future, in the never-never, where you are going to fix this up. I will remain a sceptic on the whole environmental issue but, I tell you what, I know dead set what you are up to with this. What you are up to with this is the stitch up of a whole heap of agricultural farm area and also the stitch-up, for whatever purposes, of a piece of legislation that is out there to help certain vested interests in certain corners get a turbocharged MIS.