Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion relating to the discharge of bills from the Notice Paper, as circulated in the chamber.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice standing in my name as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter—namely, a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to the discharge of bills from the Notice Paper.

As if the car tax that was exposed yesterday wasn't enough, we now have the fresh food tax. What the coalition is seeking to do today is to have the farmers tax removed from the Notice Paper of Senate debate to give confidence to the 85,000 farmers across this country that this government will not seek to make them pay for the biosecurity arrangements of importers—their competitors. It is absolutely outrageous and really goes to the heart of the Labor Party's attack on rural and regional Australia.

Our farmers are producing the cleanest, greenest product in the world. Our biosecurity arrangements need to be tough and they need to be secure, but you shouldn't be expecting our farmers to be the ones to pay for that, because—guess what—you tax the farmers but they are price takers. You have to pass that tax through. That means that, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, fresh groceries are going to go through the roof for everyday Australians. You're seeing in the UK over this week that farmers right across the UK have taken to the streets of London against their own Labor government installing taxes and increased impost on the agriculture sector there. The agriculture sector here in Australia has made it very clear that they do not want this biosecurity tax, this fresh food tax from Labor. Thanks to the tough stance that they have taken, it's sat on the Notice Paper for 320 days. We haven't dealt with it. Thanks to the National Farmers Federation and their president, David Jochinke, for being so tough, for actually standing up for our primary producers, because what we have seen under Labor is that Australians are now seeing food at the grocery store go up by 12 per cent during the cost-of-living crisis.

So what do they do? They think it's just not high enough for everyday Australians to pay for their fresh food; let's put a tax on farmers. But that's not all they've done to our agricultural sector. They've torn up the agriculture visa, making it harder for our farmers to find a workforce. They've banned the live sheep export trade, putting men and women—shearers—out of work in WA, and they've also cut and delayed regional infrastructure and water projects. The 82 per cent renewable target by 2030 is seeing farmland carpeted with solar panels, wind towers, and transmission lines—tearing up private property rights. The deceitful changes to superannuation, which I'm sure will be slammed through this chamber before we break, that will see farmers taxed on unrealised gains—as if they're going to sell the family farm to pay their tax bill—are absolutely appalling. There is radical industrial relations law. They're signing up to the Global Methane Pledge. Thank you very much, if you're a beef producer! There are potential cultural heritage laws which put private property rights at risk across this country and the onerous scope 3 compulsory emissions, and I could go on.

They talk a big game about supporting rural and regional Australians, the nine million of us who don't live in capital cities. They say that as they're in front of the cameras, as they're standing up in Merimbula even this morning. But look at people's actions. This government's actions are an assault on rural and regional Australians, on what we do. You can't find a doctor in the regions, for love nor money.

They've torn up projects that were supposed to assist us with road safety and productivity gains with freight. They are attacking our farmers. They've instigated a car and ute tax, which will mean rural and regional Australians pay more for the cars we don't just buy because we love them—which we do—but because we need them to do our work and to travel the hundreds of kilometres just to get to footy training on a Thursday night, let alone earn a living. Labor's assault on the regions has to stop and we need to discharge this bill.