Labor levy model leaves Mallee farmers scratching their heads
Labor’s proposed Fresh Food Tax will funnel millions into Government coffers annually with no clarity how it will be implemented, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster says.
Labor plans to impose the new Biosecurity Protection Levy (BPL) from July 1st, despite the Bill not yet passing the Senate and just 7 Senate sitting days left. A Senate inquiry into the fresh food tax begins on Tuesday. The Bill departs from the standard transactional levy used for most farming sectors, instead basing tax collection on a given sector’s Gross Value of Production (GVP).
“The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) takes up to two years to compile GVP data, so will the Government be basing this cash grab off historic rolling averages or from two year old data?” Dr Webster asked, “Labor’s Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has failed to consult with farmers and here we are just months out from the levy being implemented with more questions than answers.”
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry figures show how the BPL will affect Australian farmers across the various agricultural commodities.
“The estimated 22,300 grain, legume and oilseed growers alone will pay about $500 a farm, and together almost a quarter of the total $51.8 million to be collected from Australian agricultural producers each year under this system,” Dr Webster said.
“Labor is shifting money from grower incomes into consolidated Government revenue with zero transparency, all to pay for the risks foreign competitors bring into the country. The better approach, as we the Nationals have advocated, is to charge the biosecurity costs on container imports. However – and yet again – Mallee farmers are being railroaded through Labor’s heavy-handed policies that treat farmers like the proverbial piggy bank to buy votes in the city.”
Dr Webster said Labor’s fresh food tax was another example of Labor failing farmers, demonstrated by the tax’s arguably unprecedented universal rejection by all agricultural peak bodies.
“This is another slap in the face for farmers from the Labor government, adding insult to injury with other terrible policies such as, draining Irrigation communities with further water buybacks, prime agricultural land being ripped up for transmission lines and wind turbines and forcing farmers to pay workers whether there is farm work to be done or not,” she said.
“The Nationals are fighting for our farmers, meanwhile Labor is applying the handbrake to farm productivity.”
