ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - BILLS - Treasury Laws Amendment (Fairer for Families and Farmers and Other Measures) Bill 2024 - Second

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (12:25): As an amendment to the motion for the second reading, I move:

That 'now' be omitted with a view to substituting the word 'not'.

Labor, as always, is late to the party on this. We're on the last day of the scheduled sittings for 2024, and Labor comes into this place, having promised pre the election in May 2022 that they would be a fairer, better government with more transparency and all the rest when it came to parliamentary procedure. Disappointingly—unbelievably!—what do they do on the last scheduled sitting day for this year and, potentially, this term? They bring in rushed legislation. They don't allow the opposition time to go through the legislation. They don't give the opposition time to consider it through the normal processes, such as backbench committees, joint party rooms and party rooms. This is exactly what Labor said it would not do, but here they are, bringing in this legislation and putting a fancy title on it: Treasury Laws Amendment (Fairer for Families and Farmers and Other Measures) Bill 2024, like it couldn't possibly be rejected. Fairer for families and farmers—we'll wait and see. If there has ever been a government in this nation that has been more unfair to families and more unfair to farmers, it is this government.

On this government's watch we have seen prices go through the roof. We have seen household energy bills soaring. Just yesterday, on a mild day with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees in Sydney, we had power outages in Wagga Wagga affecting thousands of households and thousands of farmers. We had a blackout, and we saw the NSW Premier Chris Minns say, 'Turn off your pool pumps, turn off your washing machines, turn off your appliances, turn off your dishwashers.' It's not even summer yet. It wasn't even hot yesterday, yet they're blaming a heatwave. No—we need to blame Labor's rush to renewables. That rush to renewables is affecting the prices that households are paying for their energy.

Government members interjecting

Mr McCORMACK: Listen to them go! May Hansard record the protest by those opposite. There are only three of them, and they're very noisy. This is a—

Dr Leigh: Talk about farmers.

Mr McCORMACK: I'll talk about farmers, don't worry. I don't think the member for Fenner has ever come across a farmer or met a farmer. I'm not sure he's got too many farmers in his suburban Canberra electorate.

Dr Leigh: Absolutely.

Mr McCORMACK: Good on him. He's a decent sort of fellow, but he brings this legislation into this House knowing full well that Labor has been very unfair on farmers and families that they purport to represent. They have been very unfair on those people they said they would look after—and we know they are not.

The coalition has been calling for stronger competition in our supermarket sector for more than two years. We introduced legislation. On 4 November 2024, we introduced the Food and Grocery (Mandatory) Code of Conduct Bill 2024 to this House. We wanted to see a better deal for our farmers.

You've just heard the Nationals leader, the shadow agricultural minister, talking about having a supermarket commissioner and how it would be fairer for our farmers. Yet what does Labor do? The Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury just might represent one or two farmers. I appreciate that he claims he went to an agricultural college, and good luck to him, but did he listen when those teachers were saying that you need to be fair in your adult life? I know he's written plenty of books. Again, good on him. I know one of his books is even a top seller in Australia, and good on him for that. But what he shouldn't do is bring in legislation in the death throes of this parliament and expect to have them rammed through the House of Representatives in next to no time without proper consideration. Here we have a Labor government which, when talking to stakeholders, is forcing them—putting one arm behind the stakeholder's back while they virtually hold the signing hand with the other—and demanding nondisclosure agreements. That's so stakeholders can't oppose, comment on or discuss certain bits of certain legislation. That is so undemocratic, and so is this.

Our plan includes the following: making the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory for retailers and wholesalers in the supermarket sector with an annual turnover of more than $5 billion and having higher penalties for breaches of the code up to $10 million, which is three times the value of the benefit obtained from a contravention. I've spoken to consumer advocate Luke Mackenzie about this very regularly. Farmers are too frightened to take on the big supermarkets, because, if they do, their supply gets cut off. If they do, their contracts get torn up. If they do, they don't get any more business. I appreciate that the supermarkets do, in certain circumstances, give the opportunity for national exposure and national sales of products from our farmers, who are, as I've always said, the best stewards of the environment in our country, who grow the best food and fibre in all of the world.

Mr Birrell: Hear, hear!

Mr McCORMACK: I hear 'hear, hear' from the member for Nicholls, and he would know. His area around Shepparton and the Goulburn-Murray Valley area grows some of the finest, freshest food, just like the Riverina and the member for New England's electorate. They grow the best food in all the world—enough to feed 80 million people.

In addition, where a court can't determine a contravention, there will be 10 per cent of annual turnover in those higher penalties, with infringement notices of $2 million, there will be 10 per cent of annual turnover in those higher penalties, giving powers to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to audit the retailers and wholesalers to ensure they are dealing with suppliers lawfully, in good faith and fairly. There's that word again: 'fairly'. That's something that Labor should adhere to and perhaps look up in the dictionary for the definition. They are complying with the code. They should create a supermarket commissioner, as I mentioned earlier, to act as a confidential avenue for farmers and suppliers as well as introduce sector-specific divestiture powers as a last resort to address the behaviour of supermarkets and put an end to supermarket price gouging.

If ever we needed such legislation, it is right now, because people are hurting. People cannot afford the grocery prices that they are encountering when they go to the supermarket. Why? It's because Labor spent the first months and months of the 47th parliament worrying about a divisive referendum. You may well laugh about this, Minister, but this is the fact. It did nothing to sort out the cost-of-living crisis, pressures and hurt that people were already experiencing because of the Labor government coming into power and office. Real wages are not going up; real wages are coming decisively down. Yes, people might have higher wages, but the cost-of-living is taking all of that up and then much more besides. Don't take my word for it; go and talk to a farmer or worker. Go and see how they are hurting. If real wages are going up, why are people pitching tents along riverbanks in country communities and hooking into the council-provided power supplies at tourist parks et cetera and living in cars? Why is the homeless rate up?

People are hurting. It's ordinary, everyday Australians who are worried about how they're going to put gifts under their Christmas trees this year. It's ordinary, everyday Australians who, every time they go and fill up at the bowser, are paying more and more for their petrol and their fuel. It's ordinary, everyday Australians who simply can't afford groceries. And what do we have? In New South Wales yesterday, we had the Premier telling people to turn off their appliances, simply because he didn't want more blackouts as a result of the supposed heatwave—which was a complete folly—that was affecting the power load right across the state.

This is the thin edge of the wedge, because, if that was happening yesterday, what on earth is going to happen when it does become hot and we get those temperatures in the mid-30s that we normally get—usually get, inevitably get, invariably get, always get—every summer? It's not climate change; it's just the fact that our summers are hot. Yet they will blame climate change. It is not; it is the fact that our summers are always hot—always have been, always will be—and that we live in a country of droughts and flooding rains and fires. And we now live in a country where there is a cost-of-living crisis, and it should not be so.

We grow the best food in all of the world—the best, the cleanest, the freshest, the greenest—and what does this government do? No sooner had they lost the referendum—that divisive referendum on the Voice—than they started putting in taxes like the truckies tax. They started putting in taxes on farmers, getting them to pay for the biosecurity of products that come in from overseas and compete on the shelves of the supermarkets of Australia. Our farmers are affected by this. This is nonsense, yet this is what Labor is doing. They are not the farmers' friend. They are not being fair to families. They are not being fair to farmers.

This is a diabolical situation, and what do we see on the last day of parliament? They're just trying to ram this legislation through and trying to guillotine debate. Only yesterday we saw the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 put in this place. Yes, I voted in support of it and, yes, so did Labor.

Dr Leigh: Are you going to vote for this bill?

Mr McCORMACK: I'm not. What we saw yesterday was Labor talking up a bill that was so imperative that it needed to happen and be pushed through, but hardly any Labor members spoke on the bill. They only speak on bills when the Labor 'dirt unit' sends them in here with the notes and tells them to do just that.

Mr Giles interjecting

Mr McCORMACK: You might laugh, but it's true, because they all stand at the microphone with their notes and just read them diligently like they have to. They can't even think for themselves.

This bill has to be opposed. This bill is bad. That is why my amendment needs to be followed, needs to be adopted and needs to be taken up. We have not had time to consider Labor's rushed policies and Labor's rushed bill. They're just trying to tidy everything up so they can get to Christmas and pretend there's nothing to see here, then call an election early next year. Well, the punters are onto them; the voters are onto them. They know that this government has not been fair to families, they know this government has not been fair to household budgets, and they certainly know in rural, regional and remote Australia that this government has not been fair to farmers.

It is just too little too late. It's a bandaid measure by a terrible government—one that has been terrible for Australia—that, in its dying days, is desperate just to push through legislation. Australians are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, and it is out of control. People do not know how they are going to make ends meet. They do not know how they're going to pay their rent, how they're going to pay their mortgage, how they're going to pay for their groceries, or how they're going to pay for Christmas gifts this December. The government has been too slow to act on competition policy—it has—not just in the supermarket sector but right across the economy. We've seen it with the news bargaining code, we've seen it with consumer data rights, and we've seen it in the serious cartel allegations against—wait for it—the CFMEU. It's alright though, John Setka's going out—he's apparently got PTSD. He'll probably get a big pay out too. Labor's friend, the CFMEU—

Mr Giles interjecting

Mr McCORMACK: Well, yes, Labor's friend because Labor takes donation after donation.

Mr Giles: We kicked him out. What did you do?

Mr McCORMACK: You didn't have the guts, like Bob Hawke did with the Builders Labourers Federation, to deregister the union. That should have been the first order of business. A tough prime minister like Bob Hawke would have done that—did do that back in the day—but not this mob.

The coalition has led the way on this since the start of the term and our package of bills that we introduced weeks ago is the outcome of that work. Led by the Nationals leader, led by the Nationals, led by the coalition, and that's what we do. Our approach has been fair, has been right, has been proper, not like this unfair for families and farmers bill. I urge for my amendment to be adopted.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Goodenough ): Is the amendment seconded?

Mr Joyce: The amendment is seconded. I stand here—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call the honourable minister.

Emma Sullivan