Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator, it was your legislation that went through last night. It was your amended bill that went through. It was your government that sent the letters out to 200,000 workers and said, ‘Sorry about this. We just took $50 a week off you charity workers.’ Then you ran up against the nurses union, which nearly ripped you to pieces—and rightly so. They are the consequences of the things that you continually do and the legislation that you continually put up in this parliament. No doubt we will be back here when we come to the salary sacrifice measure, because people are going to lose benefits. We were told last night that 20,000-odd people were going to lose benefits on health cards, baby bonuses and a number of other things. I have been trying to get that information out of the government for the last month and I have been spectacularly unsuccessful in getting it.

What I am trying to convey to the Senate today is that, again, we have a piece of legislation that has unintended consequences, and the consequences can be clearly seen. It is going to put up the tax on passenger movements significantly. We are going to pass this bill. We believe that if the government are silly enough to do this and it is part of their budget and the people elected the government then they have a right to pass their legislation. So we will be passing this. We have carried amendments making it not retrospective on tickets that have been sold. That was a bit of a win. In the overall scheme of things it is a plus; it is a positive. But it is not going to make a great deal of difference in the end.

I am not sure whether the coal industry or the tourism industry is our biggest industry—Senator Joyce might be able to inform me—but you have to nurture those industries. You have to cuddle them in. You have to make sure that nothing happens to them. When something is producing so much income for Australia—and foreign income—you can see the writing on the wall. The dollar is going through the roof. It is affecting not only the tourism industry but every primary industry that exports a product. When you see it happening, the alarm bells should ring.

I have always thought Senator Conroy was a reasonably good operator. I know that many of my colleagues over here do not share that view. I think they are being a bit uncharitable. But Senator Conroy should be looking at this at the cabinet table, when these proposals are put up. I know he is the minister for communications, but that does not exclude him from making a comment.