Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

They would be residents for tax purposes, under any of the box-ticking exercises the ATO makes you do. We would like to make it very clear, by changing the income tax amendment, that all backpackers pay the same tax as Australians. Are they on a tax-free holiday while they are here? That is Senator O'Sullivan's contribution to this debate. They pay the same tax as Australian workers. Australian workers, for good reason, if they earn less than $18,000, do not pay tax, because they are low-income earners who need our support. That is a progressive taxation system. Why should it be different for foreign workers, when foreign workers are paying Australian tax when they earn over $18,000. It is exactly the same.

That is our competitive advantage. Other countries do not offer that, Senator O'Sullivan. That is why backpackers come. Your stuff-up in this bill today is why backpacker registrations in Tasmania are down 40 per cent since you said you were going to introduce this legislation. You are the economic vandals. You love to point it out to us, the Greens, across the chamber but, seriously, you could not have stuffed this up any more than you have. This has been a total catastrophe, and I think you have lost an incredible amount of support in the bush, Senator O'Sullivan, over this legislation.

This brings us to the other amendments that will be before the Senate today. Senator Lambie will be introducing an amendment for a 10½ per cent tax rate. I have to be honest: I do not want to support a 10½ per cent tax rate, because I passionately believe that these workers should pay the same tax rates as Australians, but I know that a number of agricultural producers will accept that. And there is a good reason they will accept the 10½ per cent tax rate: it is still competitive with other foreign jurisdictions where backpackers can go and work, like New Zealand. Given the awful superannuation clawbacks, where backpackers get paid superannuation and when they leave this country the government takes 95 per cent back off them—the government is going to take off 95 per cent of the super these backpackers pay—that is a de facto tax increase anyway. That takes us to around 19 per cent, so the effective amount of money that backpackers are losing will be around 19 per cent. If the underlying rate is 19 per cent on top of these superannuation clawbacks, the effective rate is going to be a lot higher than 19 per cent. And these backpackers will do their sums. They will look at these things and they will choose to go elsewhere for their holidays. We lose in tourism; we lose in agricultural production. It is a lose-lose situation for this country. We raise bugger-all money—almost nothing in the scheme of things—and it distracts away from the important issues we should be dealing with in this Senate and this country, and that is raising revenue and tackling inequality—income inequality, gender inequality and age inequality. This is nothing but a distraction from the things we really need to be doing.

I would urge all senators in this chamber to take the strongest possible position on this legislation. Stand up for your agricultural producers, because Senator O'Sullivan and the National Party will not; stand up for the tourism industry; and reject the increases in the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill. Labor are looking to split these bills up. The Greens see that as a very sensible thing to do. Reject the passenger movement charges, which put tourism at risk—another penny-pinching exercise by Mr Scott Morrison—and reject this backpacker tax, which will put our agricultural producers at risk.

God only knows this is not just a Greens senator standing up in this chamber and saying it. I know some of my colleagues will say it. This is, Senator O'Sullivan, the clear evidence we heard in the Senate committees when we went around the country. It is what I have heard from feedback. I have contacted every agricultural producer in Tasmania to raise this issue with him. I absolutely have.