Backpacker tax in limbo
The Senate has stymied the government’s plans to get this week’s compromised backpacker tax through Parliament.
The government was put on the back foot when the Greens, and crossbenchers including Derryn Hinch, Jacqui Lambie and David Leyonhjelm supported a Labor amendment to lower the backpacker tax from 32.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent.
The Senate therefore rejected the compromised 15 per cent proposals the government had reached this week.
This was a surprise for the government which thought it had the numbers after it had been forced to lower its proposed rate to the 15 per cent proposed by One Nation on Monday.
As a result, the bill is being sent back to the House of Representatives.
Finance minister Mathias Cormann said the government would use its numbers in the lower house to reject the amendment.
He told parliament that Labor and the Greens “will wear this like a crown of thorns”.
In other words, the bill is unlikely to pass this week, the final sitting week for 2016.
Senator Hinch told Sky News it would be on the government’s head if the bill didn’t get through the House of Representatives this week, pointing out that if National MPs could cross the floor on a vote on the Adler shot gun, they could always pass a 10.5 per cent tax.
The National Farmers Federation, which had supported the 15 per cent compromise, is furious about being blindsided. Farmers have been worried about the stalemate because they are vulnerable to fragile seasonal labour supplies.
“We’re absolutely frustrated, disappointed and cannot believe this insanity continues,’’ NFF chief executive Tony Mahar told the ABC.
“It’s just a sad indictment that the politics and parliament can hold an industry and farmers to ransom over what is an issue that we thought was solved.
“I cannot be and neither can the broader community … this is just a really good example of why people are losing faith in the political process.”
by Leon Gettler, Dccember 1st 2016
