Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Water Resources and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Build a shed—I will take the injection from Senator Joyce. We—and I should say this as a farmer from the central west of New South Wales—do not get those tax breaks. But what is being proposed here is a tax break for the big end of town to deal with their carbon emissions by putting in carbon sinks on our prime agricultural land—on the very land that provides food and fibre for this nation.

Earlier today we heard a discussion around whether or not, under this 100 per cent upfront tax deduction for capital expenditure over four years, the land itself or leasing of that land is going to be classed as capital expenditure. We are standing in this chamber months and months after this was first raised, as my colleagues Senator Milne and Senator Joyce said earlier, and we still do not know what capital expenditure is going to be included in this.

I can only ask the Senate, with respect to the potential situation of a 100 per cent upfront tax break for large corporate entities, whereby they may purchase land and get 100 per cent tax deductibility for doing so: what does that say about our support for rural and regional communities? What does that say about how wrong we are getting it, how wrong this government is getting it in terms of providing that security? The issue of the lack of certainty alone should be getting every senator on this side of the chamber to cross the floor and make sure we knock out these regulations to disable—