John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The truth does hurt some, doesn't it? What about the live export ban Senator Ludwig implemented in 2001? Talk about being led by the nose. What did that do to the truckies in the Top End? They were put out of work. The trucks were standing idle while we lost the 750,000 head of live exports to Indonesia because of your Prime Minister at the time, Ms Julia Gillard. That is who not knocked that off.

The point I make about this is: do not swamp our regional truckies—who are carting their livestock to the abattoirs, to the market and feeding Australia—with paperwork. The oral contracts are part of the fair work legislation, and if you are going to put paperwork on them, who is going to pay for it? They will pass it down the line to the primary producer. Who does the primary producer pass the cost on to? They have no-one to pass it on to—and we wonder why the average age of a farmer is 58 years of age. Why are the young ones not going on to the farm? It is because the profit is not there, and I salute the new agriculture minister, Mr Barnaby Joyce, for his white paper into the farm-gate price.