Mr O'CONNOR —My question is addressed to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Does the minister support the abolition of taxation averaging for farmers, which is worth $180 million per year, as proposed for consideration in the discussion paper released yesterday by the review of business taxation? Isn't it the case that, since most farmers generally make a loss, they would therefore not benefit from a lower business tax rate? Will the minister rule out the government abolishing this longstanding assistance to farmers?

Mr VAILE (Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) —I thank the member for Corio for his question. The first point I would like to make is that, if the member for Corio and the Australian Labor Party were serious about supporting farmers, they would support the government's tax reform package that we have got up in the Senate—and you would get your colleagues in the Senate to put it through.

We took the tax reform package to the people of Australia so that they could vote on it. They voted on it. It just so happens that we are sitting on this side of the House, and you are sitting on that side of the House. That is the response from the people of Australia about tax reform.

Mr McMullan —Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. It is very hard for this answer about the election outcome to be relevant to a report which was released yesterday.

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Fraser makes a valid point of order, and I ask the minister to bring his answer to the question of tax averaging.

Mr VAILE —The question was about tax averaging, Mr Speaker, but the question also was about the tax reform process. We have undertaken an open assessment in conjunction with the private sector on the circumstances with regard to business tax, which include the farm sector. We have done that in an open and transparent way, which is something that the Labor Party never did. But we are not going to undertake any measures that are going to be detrimental to the farm communi ty—and that includes the measure that the question was just asked about.

I go back to the point I was making. This is part of an overall package, and everybody in Australia knows it. Everybody in Australia knows that this is part of an overall review of the Australian taxation system. It is about making our taxation system much better focused for the future of this country. It is about underpinning or providing a much better foundation for the productive primary industries in this country. We are about doing that; the Labor Party are opposing it. They opposed all the way the measures that we undertook to fix up the Australian economy.

Mr Price —Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The question was about tax averaging, which is a very specific question; it was not about the gamut of tax reform.

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Chifley is making a point of order about relevance, one would presume.

Mr Price —Yes, standing order 44.

Mr SPEAKER —I understood that the minister was winding his answer up, and I would invite him to do so.

Mr VAILE —Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thought I had indicated that we were going to rule it out. We are not going to implement any measures that will be detrimental to the farming community. What we are going to do is implement changes to the taxation system that will be beneficial to the rural sector, absolutely beneficial to the rural sector—and it is the Labor Party in the Senate that is standing in the way.