Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I say to industry that, by moving this motion, what we are looking to do is to ensure that the government engages with them in a genuine reform process. That is what we are looking to do. Moving this motion does not mean that reform is all over. The government might be threatening that, but the government knows that it has to go ahead with the reform process. Yesterday there was no money available; suddenly today there is $20 million. We know that they have the money. They can spend $43 billion on stimulus but they cannot put money in to effectively fund a reform process. It is absolutely ridiculous. What we want the government to do now is to put in place a process that has agreed timelines, that has agreed work plans, that has agreed costings—and then to fund it. They can then come back to this place with that new reform process.

We have tried to be constructive all the way through this process. We could have knocked this off back in June. We could have disallowed these regulations back in June. But we did not. We gave the government the opportunity to continue with its reform process—to work with industry, to come back with agreed work plans, and then for us to have the opportunity to peruse that, look and see how they were getting on and then to assess whether or not we saw things as being genuine.

On top of that, we asked industry to come and speak before us. We put in place a Senate inquiry—which the government opposed; they were not interested in genuinely hearing what industry said—and industry came in and told us that they wanted a reform process that allowed them to work out what the savings might be: implement the reforms and then change the fees and charges. There is no equivocation on industry’s part. They want a reform process—as do the opposition and as do the miners, I am sure. I am sure they are all looking to see something like this happen. So, we say to industry: we know there is concern out there about what is happening here today, but now is your opportunity to sit down with government and negotiate a proper reform process. The pressure is now on the government. We said last week, in a taking note debate, that if this fell over it would be the government’s fault. Do not go blaming us: we gave you every chance. We gave the government every chance to sort this out, and they did not. They were running around between 10 o’clock this morning and four o’clock this afternoon trying to negotiate some sort of last-minute deal, but nobody can tell us what the deals mean. So how can we, with confidence, go back to that small abattoir in Myrtleford and say: ‘Look, you are not going to be charged a $50,000 registration fee’? We cannot. How can we go back to the cherry growers in Tasmania and say: ‘We are confident that you are not going to see an explosion that puts you out of the Japanese market’? We cannot. We cannot even go to the abattoir in Western Australia, which is the only one between South Australia and Townsville, right around the top, and say, ‘Your fees and charges will not go up.’

So what I say to industry is: go back to Minister Burke, take your proposals and your plans, and come and talk to us as well because we are genuinely interested in progressing this reform process. If the government is prepared to put a real deal on the table, we will support it. We have tried to be constructive all the way through this process. We did not come in here quoting press releases that were three months old or read last week’s submission to the inquiry to try to justify our position. We have worked with industry all the way through. We have taken on board their concerns and we will continue to do that so that we get a good outcome. We are prepared to work with the government to achieve that if they are prepared to work with us. So here is the opportunity for the government: if you want to get this right, sit down and deal with industry and this parliament in a genuine way and we will be part of the deal.