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

I will tell you something: you have got to smell a rat when the Greens say that they are friends of the meat and livestock industry. You have got to smell a rat when they stand up and say that they are friends of agriculture or that they are there for horticulture. I have listened to them in the last two or three years that I have been here and they are not friends of those industries at all. When you see them doing a deal with the government you can bet your bottom dollar that there is something horribly wrong here.

The government has to get fair dinkum. They are going to have to do their homework. They are going to have to put decent reform in place. Get the efficiencies up-front before you start slugging hardworking Australian industries that are exposed competitively internationally. Talk to the exporters. They are still very concerned. I have spoken to them today, even since the other $20 million has come in. It is still basically saying, ‘You have got a one-year reprieve.’ The government should get on with it, get the efficiencies in place and then, as the costs come down, come back to the parliament and seek approval for jacking up the prices. That way it is a fair deal—rather than just saying, ‘No, industry can bear the cost.’ And then they say, ‘Don’t disallow this stuff now because we have got a deal with the Greens which says that the $20 million will actually help to offset the cost.’ How much it will do that, I do not know. But then at the end of that year, guess what? They are exposed again. And the government would say, ‘Trust me.’ Well, this one is a problem.

I do not see enough work being done in this area and I do not want to slug hardworking industries, that are exposed internationally, with extra costs at this time. You use the global financial crisis—which is there; it is legitimate—but you pick and choose what you use it for. These are hardworking Australians. They are already doing it tough. I cannot see the sense in getting them to foot the bill for your inefficiencies. The report itself said that a common theme in submissions was that the removal of the rebate should not have been contemplated ahead of the implementation reform. It is in the report as part of 2.4 under the heading ‘Industry support for removal of the rebate’.

I have spoken to some people this afternoon, even since the $20 million, and I tell you: when the Greens say that they are friends of the meat and livestock industry they have got to be kidding. When the Greens say that they are friends of agriculture they have to be joking. Let us be fair and reasonable here. Get on with the reforms yourself and get the efficiencies in there. The costs savings need to be there first and then we can look at how much of the rebate should be passed on to these hardworking Australian industries that are exposed on exports.