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

I will take the interjection, Senator Rhiannon. How are you going to privatise a business—that is, Medicare—that earns $10 billion a year and spends $20 billion a year? Who is going to be the foolish investor that would buy that company? Perhaps the Greens would be foolish enough to buy it. It would be like having a coffee business that collects $10,000 a week in business and spends $20,000 a week. Who is going to buy that? It was just a political scare campaign.

But it got worse as you went north in New South Wales to the seat of New England, where former member Tony Windsor came out of retirement to take on the agriculture minister and Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce. We had the CFMEU, the MUA, the nurses union, the Teachers Federation—all the unions. We had GetUp! All the lefties lined up behind Mr Windsor, putting in their resources and manning the booths. They came from everywhere. I was even speaking to a bloke from Canberra who travelled up to Tamworth to hand out in a pre-poll. The left-wing alignment had a big orchestrated campaign to oust Minister Barnaby Joyce. Of course, it did not happen. The result was almost 60-40 two-party preferred. It was an outstanding win for Minister Joyce, and he deserved it, because he works hard and he has good policies. But it was a grubby campaign, the grubbiest I have seen—tearing down corflutes, removing corflutes, putting paintwork on corflutes and signs. It was just disgusting and it was getting worse.

From the Governor-General's words yesterday, there is certainly a lot to be very optimistic about. I refer to agricultural industries. We have record beef prices. In fact, they are so high I am getting very worried they might be too high in some regards. If they become too high, our processors would find it very hard to compete overseas. They would probably lose money. I have been around long enough to know what happens when markets get too high—we often have a crash. I hope that does not happen to the beef industry. The lamb industry is looking brilliant, with good demand even though sheep numbers are down. Lamb prices and mutton prices are very good. There are record prices for chickpeas. The cotton industry is doing very well. The wool industry is going great. There are certain concerns in relation to the grain industry, and of course the dairy industry is having a very tough time. I am pleased that the ACCC is having a good look at that industry and at some of the contracts that the milk producers have had to face. I does make it tough when the world price of milk products falls. We produce around nine billion litres of milk a year in Australia and we consume around 4½ billion litres, so about half our milk production relies on the world price and the Australian dollar. It is good to see that the situation is improving. Milk powder, having dropped to around $1,500 a tonne, is now back up to $2,300 a tonne. It had been over $5,000 a tonne. In tough times it is good to see that Minister Joyce and the government are out there supporting dairy farmers and giving them all the help they can.

Manufacturing has been a tough industry in Australia. Can I say proudly that we have a company in Inverell, where I live now, called Boss Engineering. Seven years ago when they kicked off they employed seven people. They build air seeders, tillage machinery. They now employ 90 people, so they have gone from seven employees to 90 employees in seven years. They build a great product—I would say the best in the world. They have a great future. If we can do it with agricultural machinery, we can do it with other things.

The big discussion at the moment is the backpackers tax. I said in my maiden speech in this place on 15 September 2008 that some of our unemployed needed a touch on the backside with a cattle prod to get them off their backside to go and get a job. I stand by that. We have some 735,000 people unemployed, but they cannot pick our fruit and they cannot work in our abattoirs. We are relying on backpackers to do that work. What is wrong? When I was a young fellow, it was an absolute shame to be unemployed. That is why I picked up a handpiece and learnt to shear sheep. Once I could shear sheep, I was never out of a job—never. I was shearing during the shearing season and crutching during the autumn season et cetera.

We have a problem with labour, with people doing basic work. It might not be the highest paid job in the world, but it is an important job to pick our fruit, to get our harvest done, to actually feed people—and much of the product is exported. But, with 735,000 people unemployed, we cannot do it; we are relying on backpackers. I think the backpackers tax should be reduced to a 15 per cent flat rate. I think 32½ per cent is far too high. Sadly, so many businesses rely on backpackers to come and do that important work when it needs to be done, at harvest time especially. The government is reviewing this, and, no doubt, I hope, it will be sorted out very soon.

As far as the debt goes, are we just going to be a selfish generation? Are we just going to borrow and borrow and borrow each and every day, build government debt and make our children and grandchildren pay for it? All senators in this chamber, when it comes to budget savings, must think about the future generations of Australians. Look what our forebears did for us—built the nation, fought the wars, developed a great country. We need to preserve that for future generations. But, of course, politics will be played. In the last parliament we saw the Labor Party propose some $5 billion of savings in their budget, and then they oppose their own savings in here, just to play politics, to add more debt, to add more to the interest bill. That is bad policy. My greatest concern is the debt we are growing up—now some $435 billion of gross debt and growing. We cannot touch the Future Fund. We cannot demand that the $25 billion or so of HECS-HELP fees be paid up tomorrow. That cannot happen. I think we all have to take a bit of pain.

Under the proposed superannuation changes, I am going to be paying about $9,000 extra a year. I do not have a lot of super. I came into this place eight years ago with virtually no super and I will be retiring in three years time—I have made no secret of that. I am here for a three-year term and then I am off to spend some time with my wife, my children and my grandchildren. I am looking forward to my fourth grandchild being born in early October. The due date is 4 October; it might be a bit earlier. Becky, all the best to you and your husband, Pat, for the safe arrival of your second child.

I will wind up, because in the matter of a minute or so we will move on to senators statements, and you have a very interesting speaker first up, Madam Acting Deputy President.