Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

So bad is this government that even the Australian Greens have decided to distance themselves from the government's legislation. Senator Whish-Wilson has just confirmed that the Greens will support the discharge of the Agriculture (Biosecurity Protection) Levies Bill 2024 from the Notice Paper. Congratulation to Senator Whish-Wilson and the Australian Greens for the wisdom that you have shown in this particular instance.

There's no group in the Australian community that the Labor government has not sought to target and undermine. They've undermined the experience of Australian families with their cost-of-living crisis. They've undermined Australia's mining and resources sector with regulatory uncertainty as a result of duplicative environmental laws. There are workplace relations laws that stifle workplaces rather than enliven them, and, of course, Australia's agricultural sector has been at the forefront of Labor's attempts to undermine and attack the very heart and essence of Australia's prosperity.

Let's be very clear about this. The biosecurity protection levy bill was pushed through the House of Representatives in March 2024, almost a year ago, and has sat on the Senate Notice Paper for no fewer than 320 days. The opposition, in the form of the coalition, opposes it. The Australian Greens have now confirmed that they oppose it, so let's wait to see what the crossbench does. Every crossbench senator is now on notice. Do they support Australia's agricultural sector, or do they want to tax it into oblivion?

This fresh food tax or farming tax—whatever you want to call it—is just another attempt by the Labor government to undermine Australians' agricultural sector. What more evidence do Australia's regional communities need to confirm in their own hearts and minds that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Dr Jim Chalmers are not on their side? No matter what the government might do in the last 24 to 36 hours while rushing out all these new announcements—'terminal to the teller' and all these fancy slogans—the record of this Labor government in terms of supporting agricultural communities at a time of their greatest need is obvious and bad.

Labor has chosen to tear up the agriculture visa. Labor is attempting ill-advised changes to the PALM scheme. Labor is banning live sheep exports, which is sending shivers through the spines of regional communities in my home state of Western Australia; pushing ahead with water buybacks; signing up to a reckless race to 82 per cent renewables; implementing onerous scope 3 compulsory emissions reporting arrangements; making deceitful changes to superannuation; passing radical industrial relations laws that stifle farming communities; signing up to the Global Methane Pledge; potentially passing cultural heritage laws that put farming communities at risk; delaying red imported fire ant eradication funding; and implementing a new tax on trucks and utes.

The list goes on and on and on, and today this Senate chamber can say to the Australian Labor Party: 'Enough is enough. We're making a stand.' The opposition's motion is supported by the Australian Greens, and now the onus is on the crossbench. Will they stand up to support regional communities, or will they let them wither on the vine?