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

As Senator Johnston rightly points out, that is probably because they are not working as we see greater and greater unemployment forecast by this government. But I stray from the importance of this issue to everyday Australians and families right around Australia, important because to them this is about social activities and pastimes, healthy, outdoor activities which government should be encouraging more of, not putting greater burdens in the way of. That is the fundamental issue that really needs to be looked at here: why a government would want to make it harder for young people to engage in a healthy, outdoor recreation activity that is so iconic to Australia’s history.

As well as the inequalities in the spread and collection of the levy, Pony Club Australia and others making submissions to the Senate inquiry, and representations to me and to other senators, have indicated concerns about their capacity to collect these levies and the capacity of organisations to be the filtering point to collect the levies for registered horses. Why? Because most of them are volunteer organisations. Most of the pony clubs around Australia are so small that, indeed, they would not be registered for GST purposes. All of their office bearers would be volunteers. Their state organisations might employ a part-time staff member. These are not organisations that are funded or equipped to collect government taxes or levies—far from it. These are organisations run by either mums and dads who are giving up their time to make sure that they can help run the organisation for the benefit of their children or indeed people like my mother, who works as an instructor on a voluntary basis on weekends.

There are so many examples and instances of Australians volunteering in these organisations. In effect, we are going to ask volunteers working in pony clubs to become tax collectors if this legislation is passed. That is utter madness and shows the selfishness of the government in wanting to pursue this type of proposal. Pony clubs are not in a position to be able to collect it.

With such a high proportion of horses in this recreation sector to be captured by the levy, the government needs to reconsider this. It is unfair, as Senator Colbeck made clear in his earlier comments, to burden the not-for-profit sector with the same type of levy system as will be applied to the for-profit sector, to the horse industry where breeders, racing owners and others seek to derive an income and make money out of the industry. That is where a comparison can be made with other types of animals that are covered by similar levies. That is where you can make a valuable example and comparison—not with the overwhelming majority of people who are in the recreation sector.

On behalf of all of those who have made such an effort to lobby me and my fellow Liberal and National senators, who have acknowledged from the very introduction of this proposal that it would hurt too many Australians and would cause pain and angst, I urge the Senate to defeat these bills, not to take the government at trust that somehow or other the regulations will tighten things up and make it fairer, because that is not the way we should deal with legislation here. We should know the outcome of legislation passed in this place before we allow it to be passed. We should not pass it based on the trust that the government will get the regulations right because, given the lack of consideration for those in the recreational horse sector shown in these bills to date, I struggle to trust that the government would get the regulations right.

These bills should be defeated today. I note that the Australian Greens issued a minority report opposing the passage of these bills. I welcome that and trust that they will stick to their guns. I welcome the comments that Senator Fielding, who preceded me, made outlining his concerns in this area. I encourage Senator Xenophon, on behalf of the fellow South Australian constituents we share, to think long and hard before he gives a vote in favour of these bills, because these bills will hurt ordinary South Australians, whom I know regard Senator Xenophon very highly. They would hope that he would regard their concerns about a new levy and a new fee as something he should be listening to and I am sure and hope that he will be.

As I read through the submissions made by the various contributors to the Senate inquiry, I was taken, in the Pony Club Australia submission, by an extract of a poem by Banjo Paterson called In the Droving Days. It is a poem that I think highlights the iconic nature of the Australian equine sector. I think it highlights just why we need to recognise that this is a sector that holds a special place in Australians’ hearts. It holds a special place in the hearts of thousands upon thousands of Australians who voluntarily give their time to love their animals, to help their children love their animals and to participate in these healthy recreations in so many different equine sectors. The poem finishes with the words:

And now he’s wandering, fat and sleek,

On the lucerne flats by the Homestead Creek;

I dare not ride him for fear he’d fall,

But he does a journey to beat them all,

For though he scarcely a trot can raise,

He can take me back to the droving days.

Let us not forget the history of those droving days in this country. Let us not forget the mums, dads and children who get so much pleasure out of the equine sector and let us toss these unreasonable bills out.