John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, I present the report of the inquiry into aspects of agribusiness managed investment schemes together with a Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

The majority of the committee which I am part of made three recommendations in relation to managed investment schemes, forestry and non-forestry. I would like to put on the record that the National Party opposes managed investment schemes. We oppose them because we think they are unfair. In any other situation where a company is formed by people coming together and where, for example, that company buys land or establishes forest or non-forestry business, those people do not have the same advantage of up-front tax deductions. For example, if someone were to move to North Queensland with a managed investment scheme and set up a huge banana industry, they could buy the land, with up-front tax deductions, but genuine banana farmers would not be able to benefit from those same tax deductions if they were to buy their neighbour’s property. This could lead to oversupply and the financial ruination of genuine producers.

We are also very concerned about the amount of farmland in Australia that is being planted with trees. At the moment 0.4 per cent of agricultural land is planted with trees. If these schemes proceed, especially under the CPRS, we may see more than six per cent of Australia’s farmland planted with trees by the year 2020. The question of food security then arises. In the next 30 years, the world is going to have to double its food production. This is of huge concern to us.

We think it is unfair that these managed investment schemes can get away with these up-front tax deductions. It is simply wrong. There need to be more changes to this and I would like to put on record that the National Party opposes managed investment schemes. Even though I present the report here today and did not put in a dissenting report, I thought I would express my disagreement with the recommendations and the whole policy scheme as it stands. That is all I have to say.