Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

It sounds to me, if I take a wild guess at what Senator McKim is conflating into what he's calling 'subsidies', that Senator McKim is wanting us to ensure that Australian farmers are paying higher taxes in relation to the fuels they use. I can tell Senator McKim, that's not something that a coalition government will do. A coalition government will not be jacking up the taxes that Australian farmers pay in relation to their fuels. We will not be rendering our resources industry less competitive than the rest of the world. These are important parts of our current economic architecture and our future economic architecture as well: providing jobs, providing more opportunities for Australians now and into the future, driving our export earnings potential. We're doing that in an environment where we are also investing in new technology opportunities. We have seen phenomenal growth in relation to the renewable energy sector, and you can see by our measures in this budget that we're investing in the next wave of emissions-reducing technologies too. (Time expired)