Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) | Hansard source

Yes, seriously. A hundred per cent, Member for O'Connor. Interesting that One Nation would, in fact, do just that. The teals and the Greens wanted to cap the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme for the most profitable mining companies. I don't need to tell you, Member for O'Connor, that the mining industry keeps the lights on. I don't need to tell you that the royalties and the taxes that mining pay keep a lot of state public schools operating and keep a lot of state public hospitals providing health services for Australians in Kalgoorlie, in Wagga Wagga and right across the nation. The mining industry is contributing about 9.9 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product—nearly 10 per cent. I was fascinated to hear Tania Constable's defence and full throated arguments in favour of what the mining industry is doing for this country and, indeed, why capping the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme is such a bad idea, questioning why the teals and Greens and One Nation—One Nation!—are getting in cahoots with one another to do this, or to attempt to do this.

Getting back onto key sectors driving trade supported jobs, there is agriculture. Our farming produce—food and fibre—is the best in the world. Our farmers are the best environmentalists on the planet. They're bedevilled often by those who simply do not understand the efforts they go to to make sure that their land and water is sustainable. If they soil the soil—pardon the pun—then, quite frankly, they're not going to have a future, so they make sure that they are doing the right thing by the dirt underneath their feet and by the water that flows and falls onto their ground.

We should be producing more. We're not going to be producing more to support our trade, to uphold bills such as the Customs Tariff Amendment (Incorporation of Proposals) Bill (No. 1) 2026, if we continue to buy water out of the Murray-Darling Basin. Just last week, another 86 gigalitres were taken out of productive use. It cost the government $430 million at a time when national debt is heading, spiralling, plunging, lurching—call it what you like—towards a trillion dollars.

Education and tourism are crucial service based export sectors bringing international revenue. Logistics and ports—interestingly, the maritime supply chain, on its own, supports nearly 700,000 jobs across this nation. The coalition will support the passage of this bill through the House of Representatives, but we do think it needs more work and we do feel as though it should be referred to a Senate inquiry because, like with a lot of Labor bills, the devil is in the detail. And there are always elements of Labor bills brought forward that you simply can't trust—that you simply know don't pass the sniff test.

Interestingly, though, whilst I went through this particular piece of legislation—as I always do—I found that there was quite some consultation. That's almost rare for Labor. Stakeholder consultation—how interesting! Submissions made to stakeholders involved in the processes overseen by Treasury have been used as the central sources of stakeholder feedback on the measures at the core of this bill, and the list is interesting. There's the Business Council of Australia, looking after big business. There's the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Forest Products Association. Thank you. Well done. We need to consult more with our forestry people. Talking of sectors which get maligned, there's one of them. And it was interesting—I had a very productive meeting with Carlie Porteous from the southern Softwoods Working Group this morning about what we could and should be doing in this regard. There's Bridgestone, Nestle, Levi Strauss, Optical Distributors and Manufacturers Australia, Bicycle Industries Australia, We Ride Australia, Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners, Ecolift, Australian Oilseeds Federation and the Australian Music Association—and that's fair enough too, because we do produce some fine music. That's noting that Daryl Braithwaite is retiring from live performances. That's such a shame. We could all sing along to 'The Horses'—but moving right along. We do export a lot of music, and that's to be admired.

But then there are these two, interestingly. Wait for this one: the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union. Of course they were consulted. But it gets better. They consulted the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union, the CFMEU. Why they were consulted, I'm not quite sure, although I suspect you're going to talk about maritime and forestry. Well, all well and good. However, interestingly, I also note a report by the ABC—one of the city based ABCs that One Nation wants to stop, but I digress—of Tuesday 16 June, where the second paragraph reads thus:

Criminal activity inside the construction Union …

That's the CFMEU. It goes on:

… had cost taxpayers in Victoria an estimated $15 billion, an investigation by Geoffrey Watson SC found in February.

I don't know why the government would really want to consult the CFMEU on what it claims to be necessary legislation, when the CFMEU are running around the state of Victoria—which is chaotic, by the way—and siphoning, for want of a better word, an estimated $15 billion through criminal activity inside the construction sector. It's no wonder that you can't get anything done or built in Victoria when you've got the union responsible doing those sorts of nefarious activities. It's no wonder. The only way that that's going to be nipped in the bud, although I think the bud is quite large, is to get Jess Wilson and Danny O'Brien from the Liberals and Nationals to lead a coalition government after November.

This bill is largely technical. We heard that from the member for Hasluck in her contribution. It's practical in nature. It incorporates into the Customs Tariff Act 1995 a number of tariff changes that have already been effected through customs tariff proposals. It gives effect from 1 July to the government's second tranche of so-called nuisance tariff removals. There are 497 of these. It follows a first tranche of tariff removals that occurred in 2024, when 457 of them were abolished. The government argues that these tariffs raise minimal revenue and apply to goods that already often enter Australia duty free under free trade arrangements or agreements or other forms of concessions. Secondly, and importantly, the bill extends Australia's duty-free treatment for goods produced or manufactured in Ukraine.

Ukraine was illegally and immorally invaded by Russia on 24 February 2022. A superpower such as Russia would have thought that it could just roll in to little Ukraine and take over within a matter of hours, if not days, if not weeks. There's something to be said for the spirit of Ukrainian people. There's something to be said for the geography of Ukraine. And there's something to be said for the fact that that dispute, that war, is ongoing, four long years after that intrusion. I want to pay tribute to His Excellency Vasyl Myroshnychenko, who is the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia. I've had a number of discussions with him about providing access to coal of all things to help heat homes and fire up factories in Ukraine—they need every bit of help they can get—and access to the Bendigo built Bushmaster, which would provide them with the military might to repel the dastardly invasion by Russia. Interestingly, in recent times, we've seen a pact between Russia and North Korea. This is not good. The world is a troubled place at the moment. It truly is. We've got the Gazan situation, we've got Iran, we've got Ukraine, and we need strong leadership. We really do. We absolutely do. I wish Andy Burnham all the best if he is to take over from Sir Keir Starmer as the next United Kingdom prime minister, because, in Great Britain and Northern Ireland—and across Europe—we need strong leadership.

The Morrison government established this tariff relief in relation to Ukraine in 2022. The measure has since been extended, and I acknowledge the government for that. The current bill will continue the duty-free treatment for a further two years, to 3 July 2028. To complement this change, there will be simplification and Ukrainian tariff relief. Notwithstanding that, the instigation of a Senate inquiry should be able to extract significant and worthwhile information about the detail, the timing, the consultation and the benefits or otherwise behind the measures, all the measures, in this particular bill, especially in respect of the hundreds of new tariffs that have been selected for abolition from 1 July 2026—because you can't just take Labor on their word. We can't just roll over and say, 'All's well and good.' There has to be more clarity. Perhaps, if the Labor government weren't so inclined to rush to their union mates in the workers' union, the Manufacturing Workers' Union, and the CFMEU, there'd be a little bit more trust from this side. But there's not, and so we go forward. That's why a Senate inquiry is necessary. That's why there needs to be more detail eked out of the proposal before us.

All that aside, the passage of this bill will go through the House of Representatives. Everything always does if you've got a 50-plus seat majority. But with that majority comes responsibility. And, with that responsibility, it is hoped that, in the upper house, this is put before a Senate inquiry so the customs tariff amendment bill can be properly and appropriately scrutinised.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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