Senator BOSWELL (12:45 PM) —This managed investment scheme issue is absolutely basic to the National Party. It is fundamental to the National Party. It is a question of life and death to the National Party. I will offer to take anyone on a tour of places where these managed investment schemes have eroded the viability of the sugarcane growers, the dairy farmers and the banana growers. We should have learnt our lesson. We developed an MIS and we thought it would help build industries. Everyone let it go through, but we saw what it did. We saw how it was impacting on rural Australia. I had the experience the other day of going to Tully. A big banana grower and sugar grower said that a block of land became available next door to him and he thought he would test the market. He was quite a wealthy man. The MIS tried to buy the block of land and it became a bidding war. He just got blown out of the market. He was a genuine farmer, farming sugar and bananas, and he could not compete. This is happening right across rural Australia.

It is bad enough with an MIS, where you give a tax break, if you actually include land in that tax break. I do not know if it is included, but Senator Joyce, who is an accountant, says it is, and Senator Milne has an opinion from a barrister who says land is included in the tax break. We will never know, I presume, until someone takes it to the High Court and has it tested. But if it is included, goodness help Australian farmers as there will not be any farming land left.

Australia is a huge empty land, and we do have lots of land. But we do not have lots of good land. In fact, we only farm about 20 million hectares. That is our total farming land. This measure has the potential for taking 20 million hectares out. Where are we going to farm? And where are we going to put the trees? We are told we will put them in land that is not highly productive. You put the trees where the trees grow fattest, and where they grow fattest is on productive land where it rains. Trees grow where it rains and they absorb more carbon. If you want to go and put trees out in the Simpson Desert I do not think we would have any objections to that. But putting them on prime agricultural land is just wrong. One of the other things that would happen—if people would ever care to go out—is that once you put those trees down next to a productive farm it becomes a haven for pigs, and—

Opposition senator—Feral goats.

Senator BOSWELL —I have never seen feral goats, but I believe that could be the case where you come from, Senator. Certainly where I come from you would then have to set up traps and have shooters go in to shoot them out. The pigs and feral goats go through the fences and destroy crops, and put mud in the rivers and the creeks. All those things do happen.

Today, the Greens and the Nationals find themselves in alignment. It is slightly different though, as I think the Greens are actually concerned about monoculture taking over the land, and it is a legitimate argument. Where the National Party is coming from is a bit different but we end up at the same place. We are concerned about very scarce good farming land in Australia being taken over. We have seen this happen in MISs. I was very disappointed the other day when the Senate brought down a report virtually giving the MISs a bit of a free kick, or a tick. Now we are just going to make it worse—100 times worse.

I cannot support something that will see people marooned, as in Tully. I talked to a guy the other day who had been a fourth-generation unionist. He was a fitter and turner in Tully and he was a fourth-generation mill worker. He appeared in the Australian. He said, ‘There will not be a fifth-generation worker in the Tully mill, as much as I would like to see my children being involved in the tools and work on the mill. I don’t think there will be one.’ He is not only a mill worker and a fitter and turner, but also a union rep in the factory who is saying that this is wrong. I suppose it is another indication of the Labor Party not being particularly worried about the blue-collar worker. But these people are worried about their jobs. As has been said before, we actually export about 60 per cent of our primary product and that feeds the world. The world is becoming more populated, and there is less and less land to feed the people. Why, in the name of goodness, are we going to do this? This is stupidity at its highest level and it should be opposed. We opposed it last time. In fact, it is only the second time we have crossed the floor on this, and we do not enjoy doing that as we understand the problem it causes.

We, the National Party, have to run up our banner and fly our colours. We have to say to the people in rural Australia: ‘We are not going to let this happen to you. If our vote means anything, it will not happen to you.’ We can only cast our vote; we do not expect to win. But at least it says to the people: ‘If you back us and give us your vote, we will back you in return.’ That is what we are doing today. I saw this coming when the bill was first introduced, and I think someone said at the time that this was an MIS on steroids—and it is. Senator Milne is right, we do not need this and, in fact, we should oppose it. We will be opposing this bill.