Hands off GST on food, farmers urge government
Date
June 26, 2015
The Age
Farmers have urged federal politicians to keep the GST off fresh food, in an overwhelming vote at the annual conference of the Victorian Farmers Federation held in Bendigo.
The stance was adopted as official policy by the VFF, after it was proposed by Sunraysia horticulturalist Bill McClumpha, who spoke passionately against extending the GST to fresh food.
"A GST on food would be disastrous for rural producers, horticulture in particular." he said. "There's nothing in it for us. You're going to see your returns diminish as the supermarkets demand a discount to protect their returns, you're going to see a shift to imports. I'm not sure about you, but there are some things which we cannot countenance." he said.
Rien Silverstein, from the Goulburn Valley, also spoke against any extension of the GST to fresh food. "Extending the GST on what we [Victorian farmers] produce is a totally ridiculous way for the government to make more money," she said.
"Fresh fruit and vegies are the food that we need to promote good health for everybody," she said. "If we put the GST on food, the health of the nation will go down."
But separately, the Victorian Farmers Federation passed a policy saying it would support an increase in the GST, provided two special qualifications about the use of the extra revenue were met. The VFF would support a higher GST provided the extra revenue was; offered to the states on condition they cut payroll tax and stamp duty, and; offered to local government on condition they cut property rates.
In other developments at the meeting;
Farmers condemned the quality of telecommunications services in the bush, with a survey of farmers reporting they encountered internet download speeds that were one tenth of their city cousins'.
Farmers passed a resolution calling on the federal government and Telstra "to urgently upgrade the fixed-wire underground network that links the NBN node to rural homes."
Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford launched a $500,000 Young Farmer Scholarships Program, which provides scholarships of up to $10,000.
In her keynote address Ms Pulford painted a bright future for Victorian agriculture. "Agriculture is central to the Victorian economy and we want to make it central to our plans to grow the state, 140,000 people [employed], $11.6 billion dollars [of annual production]. It's a big and essential part of the Victorian story, but one that we believe is poised to grow and to grow dramatically."
Ms Pulford also told the meeting the government was acting to tackle the threats posed by Queensland Fruit Fly, had plans to grow the wine industry and "we will be building [the] Murray Basin Rail" project.
"What I would like to assure you is that I will be a champion for this sector [agriculture] across government," she said.
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