Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker. I think that the broader messages that are being sent in relation to renewable fuel policy, and particularly the water taxation issue, are quite clearly different to the rhetoric that is being delivered by government. They are thresholds that government should be looking very seriously at. For a government—and the minister in the chamber is partly responsible for this particular policy initiative—to compensate water users for the loss of entitlement, then apply taxation policy to those very water users and then expect other water users to embrace, for instance, a grand plan for the Murray-Darling means, there are mixed messages in the signals that are being delivered.

As this legislation is about budget measures I think it is very important that we do, as the minister has here, very clearly state what the objective is and put in place the policy that sends that message. The point I am making is that there are mixed messages coming from some of the other policy areas. I urge the minister at the table, who introduced this legislation, to look at the clear message that comes from what he has done here—which I commend—and at what he should be doing in relation to some of the other areas, particularly in terms of the water taxation arrangements. I think it is an abomination that people who are giving up a resource for the greater good, so that others in our community can live a more prosperous existence in the long term, could go into a compensation arrangement and then find that the government of the day is going to assess the receipt of that compensation as income in the year of receipt, with up to 40 per cent of that money hence being returned to government coffers. That is crossing a threshold that should not be crossed. I think that is something that this government should have a very clear look at.

I have intimated my views on fuel taxation as well. We have this odd message being sent, with the government saying on the one hand that they want to send a clear message. They are doing that with this particular bill, and they are doing it with superannuation, in my view, but they are not doing it with some of these key threshold issues of sustainable energy, sustainable climate, sustainable water systems et cetera. I urge the minister who is here today to address these issues. I conclude my remarks and support the legislation before the House.

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