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

Last night we saw an exhibition that we do not often see in this place. The Greens, the National Party and the Liberals were so concerned with this legislation that we sprang into action once it came through. I cannot think of many times in the past 10 years that I have agreed with the Greens, but I suppose a stopped clock has to be right twice a day. I am absolutely concerned with this. I have investigated what has happened with managed investment schemes, and this seems to me to be a managed investment scheme under a different name. I was so concerned with this that a couple of days ago I looked at the legislation and then rang up and found out that this bill had gone through. I thought: oh well, there is not much I can do about it. But when the Greens put forward their amendment and opened up the debate again I saw the opportunity to try and head this legislation off at the pass.

I think the first question Senator Conroy has to answer is whether the money that will be outlaid for the property is a tax deduction. If it is then we are in very serious trouble. I will put it in a more formal way: I ask the minister to respond as to whether the initial purchase of the land to grow these trees for a carbon sink will be a tax deduction.

All the things that the Greens and Senator Joyce have said are totally accurate. We were fortunate enough to head off MISs on strawberries and fruit and so forth. We headed them off at the pass. The people out there were so grateful we did, because people were selling a tax break against strawberries or bananas or some other product. The MISs were going in and glutting the market and driving the prices down on agricultural products. Fortunately we were able to get rid of that. But now we have another type of MIS coming forward. I have seen it with my own eyes. I put forward as an example something that happened in Tully, where a fairly wealthy grower of both bananas and cane decided that he wanted to buy the property next door. This guy was a wealthy grower and he said he was prepared to go to the maximum, and even more than the maximum, to get the property next door. He offered the highest price possible, which would have allowed him no return, to get the land. He told me he was not in the race. He said he did not come within cooee of getting the land.

The implications of MISs are large. If a farmer wants to expand his property, he cannot. If he wants to buy a property for his son, he cannot. He cannot do it because he cannot in any way compete against MISs. Now we are seeing another MIS under another name. People are going to grow a product where the land produces the best trees, the best cane, the best bananas or the best anything. That is where they will put it—in prime agricultural land. In Queensland we have got an even more difficult situation because, under the tree-clearing act, people cannot cut down trees to put another forest in. So the only alternative left to them is to go and buy prime agricultural land. So we are getting the MISs going to prime agricultural land.

Everything Senator Joyce has said is accurate. There is no critical mass. Once the cane industry loses critical mass, the mill cannot work. They have got to work on around two million tonnes of cane. Once that goes down, the mill becomes inefficient and cannot produce at a reasonable cost. I fully understand what happens in the dairy industry. Once trees go all around dairy farms, they cannot get the milk truck out because there is no-one to pick up from in between. You are seeing this all over Queensland at the moment. The last thing we need is another MIS. I am concerned that public companies with lots of money can just go in and buy up this agricultural land.

I think this is probably one of the first debates we have had here where we are talking about carbon sequestration as against food production. This is a debate that is going to come into this parliament more and more as the prices of food and groceries go up. Mr Rudd told people that he would keep an eye on the prices of groceries. He is certainly keeping an eye on the prices of groceries while they are going up! I can tell you that the more agricultural land that goes out of production and goes into trees, the higher the prices of groceries are going to go.

It is not just the odd little farm that is being taken over. Around the Tully mill—just off the top of my head—something like 20 per cent of the land has already gone into trees. You cannot blame the people that are selling the land. They are going for the highest price. I do not mind competing. I am in the competition business. Whether I am growing bananas or sugar, I will compete. But I cannot compete against a tax break. If you want to make it fair and even, take the tax breaks away and let me trade my bananas against cane, trees or whatever. But let it be a flat decision. We have got everything loaded here against the people that are producing our food. We have got everything loaded against farmers.

I just appeal to you. What I saw last night was five people coming from different sectors, for different reasons, all realising that this could be a disaster. We have already got a disaster with MISs. We do not want to encourage it further. Someone told me today, ‘Your first loss is always your easiest loss.’