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

I rise to make my contribution to the debate on the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment Bill 2013. This is another important piece of legislation that is being guillotined through this place, with less than 25 minutes for debate. That means that only two people will get the opportunity to speak on this piece of legislation that is one of the 55 that is being guillotined through this place just in this week. There are 55 pieces of legislation; yet the previous Howard government was criticised up hill and down dale for guillotining 32 pieces of legislation in an entire term of parliament. Yet this bill is one of 55 guillotined in just one week and one of more than 216 in this term of parliament.

This bill continues a theme I have mentioned a number of times in presentations this week and in recent weeks, that of the adding of cost to industry, and particularly agriculture, by this government. They ignore the calls of industry to reduce the cost of government to business. They have a history of adding government cost to business. Despite the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, saying just yesterday that he was going to take—