Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do respect that. I apologise to the chair for any difficulty that I have created. But I will tell you what: you know you are on the money when Senator Cameron gets up every two minutes to interrupt the thrust of your speech! I have had three interruptions. That is a record for me. Senator Cameron has been interfering, but it will not make any difference because, until this tax rate is settled, every time I come into this place I will talk about this issue. They have to have it branded on their foreheads in the Labor Party and the Greens.

Senator Culleton, Senator Hinch and others: you have ownership of this. This was your tax. This is your tax. The power rests with you to bring it back to a reasonable rate. It is less than what the sector wanted, less than what the agriculture industry wanted and less than what the farmers wanted. It is down four per cent.

Senator Carol Brown interjecting—

Senator Brown, you need to spend a bit more time reading up on the results of inquiries. I will bet you London to a brick that no-one on the other side has even read the results of the inquiry that was done in the lower house to provide this 19 per cent tax rate.

This is exactly the same as the cessation of the live cattle trade, only it is going to affect more small businesses in the bush. It is going to affect many more than in the live cattle trade. In effect it is up in the north and it flows down through the trade and the market into the south. This is going to affect thousands of small businesses, including mum-and-dad operations at Stanthorpe, Warwick, Laidley and the Lockyer. That is the food bowl of my home state.

The only good thing to come out of this is that in all of these areas the Labor Party will never ever get another vote—not as long as they breathe. The Greens already do not get a vote there. As I said the other day, when the Greens get up and speak in favour of farmers and agriculture, farmers everywhere break out into a big sweat. They really do. They break out into a big sweat. They have a Bex and a lie down and wonder what they have just seen. That is what they are going to find today. You people opposite have crippled these small businesses.