Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

They are getting higher fees and charges. Thank you very much, Senator Colbeck. I will take that interjection. It is simply stupidity to go down that track. All of a sudden, we are told that Senator Milne has found $20 million. Please. That money suddenly materialised today. Why on earth didn’t the minister come up with it a short time ago? He should have said: ‘Okay, industry. Here we go. We recognise we are going to rip the heart out of so many parts of this industry, particularly the smaller sectors, if we impose this new tax.’ That is what it is, my good colleagues. Do not look at it as anything but a new tax on the agricultural export industry. The minister should have said, ‘We’re going to impose this tax.’ That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? This tax is being imposed on the one industry, as I said when I started, that is underpinning the recovery of this nation. It is a little bit too cute by half for other senators in this place—and I recognise their absolute right to do it—to sit here and say, ‘I did this and I did that.’ Let us have a look at what it is actually going to do. In the letter from the minister to Senator Milne, he said:

The additional funding will effectively allow a rebate on … charges …

When talking about the cost reductions, he used words like:

… potentially enabling downward adjustment …

I do not have the trust in this government that others do. I think I am very well founded in not trusting this government. This is about jobs in regional communities. This is about industries in regional communities. This is about sticking up for those parts of the industry that need someone to stick up for them. We are not going to stand here and say, ‘Yes, it’s okay for the minister to use standover tactics and say to the industry’—and this is effectively what he did—‘“If you don’t make any noise about losing this rebate then I’ll give you some money for the reform process.”’ It is not on. The minister knows he could quite effectively have left the funding there for the 40 per cent rebate and at the same time embarked on the reform process. We are not going to stand here and let those industries be belted by a new tax imposed by this Labor government. It is not fair. Anybody who understood regional Australia would not stand by and let it happen. Senator Milne has a bucket of money, but that is not the answer. The answer is to do it in a way such that the industry will not be belted by a tax while at the same time having the reform process go ahead. The minister knows it is well within his purview to do that, and he should do it.