Senate Estimates reveal folly of Rudd’s AQIS tax hike on regional exporters

The Rudd Government has no idea of the impact of its tax increases on food exports which were exacted by forcing producers to pay the full cost of Australian Quarantine inspections from 1 July 2009, according to NSW Senator Fiona Nash. The Nationals Deputy Leader in the Senate grilled federal bureaucrats in Senate Estimates today (26/5) on the consequences of the Labor policy change, only to be told the Government had no answers because it had not done the modelling. “The Government is busy boasting about the amount of jobs it is supporting with its multi-billion cash splashes, yet here they are pricing regional Australian exporters out of the market with charges their international competitors do not have to pay.” Senator Nash said that under rules set by the previous Coalition Government, food export industries paid 60 per cent of inspection fees, but that under Labor they will now have to pay the full 100 per cent. “The Government is also proposing to increase the fees, in some cases by more than 1000 per cent,” Senator Nash said. “It is no wonder one small business representative body describes the policy as ‘one of the most ill thought out business policy decisions made by this Government’ (Source: Small to Medium Enterprise Australia media release 26/5/09) Senator Nash said the move highlighted the Rudd Government’s ignorance of, and contempt for, communities in regional Australia. “After all, Labor has dished out $6.2 billion to the city-based car industry,” she said.” “But in regional Australia, the beef industry alone employs the same number of people (50,000) and earns three times as much in export, yet it gets slugged with a massive new tax.” Contact: Murray Lees, media adviser, 0417 406 338

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