Labor’s biosecurity protection levy has been introduced in Parliament, in a move that will increase the cost of living and hurt families and farmers in the Parkes electorate.
The levy will charge farmers for the biosecurity costs of importers bringing their product to Australia.
Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton spoke against the bill in Parliament on Wednesday and said it’s a second-rate proposal that just doesn’t make sense.
“Biosecurity for this country is paramount – it’s so important that we protect our borders to ensure that diseases, pests and insects do not come here and penetrate our first-class agricultural sector,” Mr Coulton said.
“It only makes sense that those that are importing products pay the price for biosecurity scrutiny. To ask Australian farmers to pay for the risk that their competitors are posing to their own industry seems incredibly bizarre to me.
“Can you imagine the gall of a government taxing their own farmers to pay for foreigners to bring their products into the country?”
As the representative for the sixth largest agricultural electorate in Australia, Mr Coulton has grave concerns over what this bill will mean for local farmers and producers.
“This week I have been talking to grain growers from all over Australia, from Western Australia right through to Moree in my electorate,” Mr Coulton said.
“I’ve also met with representatives from the wool industry, and have received correspondence from numerous local agricultural bodies.
“They are all terribly concerned about what it’s going to cost them.
“One of the concerns is that the cost of putting in a framework for compliance will actually exceed the income generated from that industry. The other issue around these levies is that it appears that they will go into consolidated revenue rather than going directly to where that money needs to be spent to protect our borders.
“It’s just another case of how this government really has contempt for regional Australia and farmers.
“Our farmers already pay more than their fair share of taxes, and this is just another cost that will inevitably be passed onto consumers at the checkout – further increasing the cost of living for families in the Parkes electorate.”
Labor will set the tax rate as a proportion of an industry’s average gross value of production over a three-year period.
However, the policy follows a disingenuous consultation process and is expensive, confusing, risky and flawed, putting the entire voluntary levy system at risk.
Labor’s legislation lacks any detail of the cost to 5,775 farmers in the Parkes electorate or how the levy will be collected. It is not clear what industry will have to pay. The legislation also states the rate of the levy can be set to nil, in case the cost of collecting the levy in some sectors actually exceeds the revenue raised from it.
More than 50 agricultural representative groups previously signed a joint letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressing unified opposition about the new tax.
“Labor needs to listen to the strong concerns raised by all Australian producers and their representative groups by scrapping the new tax immediately,” Mr Coulton said.
“We still don’t know the exact costs and the rate that farmers will be taxed which has only created more confusion and anxiety.
“The short-term impact on farmers is great, but the longer term impact of not having a biosecurity system in place that’s robust, paid for by the people that use it and paid for by the people who are introducing risks to this country is greater.
“The Nationals stand by our farmers and will fight this senseless new tax.”
