Mr IAN MACFARLANE (4:57 PM) —I thank the previous speakers for their comments. When it comes to understanding fuel prices on farms, I claim to have a little inside knowledge. We have a situation here where the Labor Party, those who sit opposite, are making claims about the price of fuel which history shows they simply do not believe. I say to the member for Bendigo: it will be a long time before you are over here, mate, because farmers are going to take a long time to forget your performance last time around. You increased the excise on fuel by 550 per cent. When you came to power, excise was 16 per cent of the price of fuel; when you were kicked out, it was 54 per cent of the price of fuel. Under the current government, it is back down to 39 per cent of the price of fuel.

The reality is that the federal government have delivered on all our promises. Every promise we made to the NFF, every promise we made to the farmers, has been delivered—except the ones that those who sit opposite stopped us delivering. I sat in the House and listened to the member for Corio speak with passion about why we should not pass the Diesel and Alternative Fuels Grants Scheme. The people he was hurting by opposing that bill are the farmers he pretends to support today. I sat and listened to him oppose a saving which is today delivering 27c a litre to the truck drivers and farmers in my electorate—27c a litre off. Truck drivers and farmers who take their trucks on the road are paying a little over 10c a litre in excise. Of course, they do not pay the GST—and I thought the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was a bit confused for a little while during question time, because he seemed to think they do, but they do not.

The trucking industry is paying less for fuel now than it was in June, less for fuel now than it was in January and about the same for fuel as it was this time last year. For Terry Sharp's information—I happen to know Terry very well; he used to be on the board that I led for the Queensland Grain Growers Association, the same esteemed organisation that the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry was a member of—the price of fuel has not gone up 35c in the last 12 months; it has gone up something like 26c a litre, and it has gone up as a result of world prices, in spite of everything we have done. We have delivered every promise to the farmers, in spite of the Labor Party, in spite of opposition from members like the member for Corio, who did not want regional Australia to get savings on transport diesel. He stood in this House, and I listened to him, and he spoke against it.

The federal government are ensuring that farmers are exempted from everything we can exempt them from. They pay no excise on the diesel they use on farm, no excise at all, and because they operate their petrol driven vehicles they get a break on that as well from the GST. That is something that they have never had before, and that is something that Ian Donges, as I remember it, when he was campaigning for changes to the taxation system in the lead-up to the last election, was strongly supporting, and we have delivered. We have delivered on the grants scheme to ensure that the differential between city and country does not blow out as a result of the changes in the tax system, and what happened? The Labor Party opposed it—a scheme worth $500 million, and they opposed it.

So, what we have here today are some opportunistic comments from the other side about what we should be doing on fuel. Let me recap on their record. When they came into power in 1983 excise was 6.1c a litre; when they left power—I should say `were chucked out'; that would be more like it—it was 34.2c a litre. If that was the worst component of their time in power that would be bad enough, but it gets worse. The member for Corio talked about interest rates. Well, I remember interest rates. I had friends who were paying 28 per cent per annum through stock and station agents to borrow money; overdraft rates and farm borrowing rates at 20 per cent or better.

So do not talk to me about what the farmers want. They know what they want: they do not want Labor returned. They still remember excise jumps of 550 per cent. They still remember when you jumped excise 5c a litre in the 1993 budget—$5.2 billion for you; you did not spend it on farmers. And the Labor Party were the ones who introduced indexation of fuel excise—yet they sit here today with sheer hypocrisy, trying to quote things that never happened under Labor that have happened under this government. When did Labor cut fuel excise? On 1 July we cut fuel excise by $2.7 billion. The people who are out there complaining about the price of fuel know that if it were not for us they would be paying a lot more today. Had you, Member for Corio, been successful in your speech in the House on the alternative fuel grants scheme then they would be paying 27c a litre more for their fuel on the road today. Do not think you have fooled them, because you have not.

I have been speaking with rural industry, and I have been speaking with the likes of Terry Sharp—although Terry was a bit confused from time to time as to where the GST actually goes. I have explained to him that it goes to the states and, as the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said, if Peter Beattie is so concerned about the price of fuel he has ample opportunity to refund it. In fact, he has the mechanism there already. So I do not want to hear these crocodile tears and this hypocrisy from the other side.

I commiserate with and I feel for the farmers out there who have seen real increases in fuel prices in the last 12 months. In the last 18 months it has been particularly severe. I understand what they are going through. I have been there myself. But this government have done everything we can to reduce the fuel excise burden on them. They acknowledge that. They acknowledge that the reduction in transport costs would have been greater had the world price not increased. But some of them have in fact experienced cuts in freight rates, and in other cases they have not seen freight rates increase as a direct result of what we have done. I remind the member for Corio that fuel to trucks is cheaper now than it was in June or in January. That is an undisputable fact.

We cannot make it rain or not rain. And we, the government, cannot do anything about the commodity prices. But we are doing what we can about fuel prices. We have cut our take, as I say, by $2.7 billion, and the great beneficiaries of that are regional Australia. The great beneficiaries of that come from areas that rely on transport. I had to sit here and be subjected to some astounding assertions from the member for Corio about what we, the government, should do about fuel excise, when we have already done it. I know the Labor Party opposed it. I know they wished it had never happened, but the reality is that out there, as a result of what we have done, diesel is cheaper than it was on 30 June for trucks on the road. That is absolutely irrefutable. You cannot say it is not. I have had truck drivers bring their fuel price dockets in, and it is right, and they have admitted it. Contrary to what they may be saying in the press, they have admitted that fuel has got cheaper as a result of the policies of this government.

This government will continue to work with rural industry to do what we can about the price of fuel. We have, as I have said repeatedly, delivered substantial savings to regional Australia. I know that farmers will be grateful for that. I know that they will never forget what Labor did to them in terms of both fuel prices and interest rates, and I know that if we continue to work together we will get the result that the farmers want. (Time expired)

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Jenkins)—Order! The discussion has concluded.