Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think I had better make sure Family First is on the record that you would have to have your head in a bucket of sand to not realise that this is a concern. As I travel around Victoria, farmers have serious concerns about the leg-up that is being given to helping food crop land go to tree crop land. We all need to do more for the environment but we need to do it on a level playing field that does not end up stuffing up our farmers and communities in a very severe away.

I want to help clarify the debate. A few people are talking about taking out schedule 3. That was passed, basically, last week. Senator Murray has gone now, but to clarify the issue technically: schedule 3 has already gone; it went last week. Family First does have an amendment, one that is very similar to that of the Greens, that makes sure that what was passed last week is not, basically, enacted. In actual fact, you take it out of the act immediately. If you pass the Family First amendment, which is the same as the Greens amendment, you will take out the leg-up and incentive given for carbon sinks. I think very early on in the piece you should really get some advice on the amendment that we have given to you. We are about to foreshadow it in this chamber. The amendment we are proposing will take out the schedule that is already in the act. That is the one that we need to get to because it enacts what Senator Heffernan, Senator Joyce, Senator Boswell and the Greens have been talking about. That amendment will get to the crux of the issue and, if we pass that amendment today, knock it out. From these comments I am hoping that we get support for the amendment that will knock it out of the act and look after our farmers and communities. You would really have to have your head in a bucket of sand to not realise that turning food crops into tree crops, and doing it in such a way that gives tree crops a leg-up, is causing problems in those areas.