Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is no-one in the government that lives and/or makes a living in the bush, and it is fair to say that the Prime Minister answered a question about agriculture accurately yesterday when he said, ‘We don’t have an answer.’ How is it reasonable to say to a farmer, who could have several million dollars worth of loan facilities with a bank, ‘Well, we’ll tell you in 2013; if we’re going to do something we’ll implement it in 2015’? If you have some millions of dollars and the government is deciding your fate, which could be up to a 30 per cent reduction in your profitability or, in the case of beef, a 200 per cent drop in profitability at $40 a tonne, how are you supposed to explain that to the bank and expect the bank to maintain confidence in your loan facility? This is silly stuff. This is an insult to Australia’s farmers. Senator, I know you are probably not aware of this, but the white paper says that, regardless of whether the government in 2013 decides that we are in or we are out, farmers will be charged a comparative tax. That is what the white paper says, doesn’t it, Minister?  I read it out yesterday. So, one way or another, farmers are going to cop this.

You would be aware that science says that, if the global population grows to nine billion people, 50 per cent of the world’s population is going to be water poor, a billion people will be unable to feed themselves, 30 per cent of the productive land in Asia, where two-thirds of the world’s population will live, is going to go out of production, the food task is going to double and 1.6 billion of the planet’s people could be displaced. That says to me that we have to do something about it. I am not going to stand here and argue all this political—I won’t swear, Mr Deputy President—