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

Family First supports this disallowance motion. Family First also raised concerns about the unfair tax breaks for carbon-sink forests when they were last raised in the Senate, back in June. Farmers in Victoria have approached me to tell me about the pressure that this tax deduction for carbon sinks puts on productive farming land, because the land can be much more valuable with plantation forests than with other uses, like producing food. Tree plantations are subsidised while important food production does not receive similar levels of subsidy. Family First remains very concerned about the problem of land suitable for food production being diverted to tree plantations for carbon sinks. Food prices have skyrocketed in recent years, and we should not be doing anything that would put extra price pressures on food production. Giving such large tax breaks to forest planting creates enormous financial pressures that will see farmers and their families squeezed off productive land. Family First is very concerned that this could threaten the viability of small communities. This motion is a chance for the Senate to put some common sense back into the law and to ensure that we do not pull the land out from under the feet of hard-working farmers.