Senator Barnaby Joyce - Ray Hadley show with Mike Gibson and Warren Moore
12-January-2012
Senator Barnaby Joyce on 2GB -
Subjects: Anti-whaling protestors, Greenpeace, National Environmental Laws, Carbon Tax
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………
2GB Presenter:
Good Morning Senator
Senator Joyce:
Good Morning, how are you?
2GB Presenter:
Good Morning Senator, I tell you what you’d have a lot of support this morning when you say that they should be denied charitable status bearing in mind we just watched them absolutely illegally break the law.
Senator Joyce:
Yeah well, I’ve got a problem with these people who want a tax deductibility for basically breaking the law. We have in the before the courts at the moment, so I can’t say too much about it, but the case before the court about the person who broke into the CSIRO dressed up as a, I don’t know, well he’s from Greenpeace and dressed up as a man from another planet I think, and then went about whipper snipping the crop. Then we’ve got the case of these three guys who boarded a vessel in the high seas. Now in the past, I think they’ve called that piracy. I don’t know what happened.
2GB Presenter:
Well it’s certainly being a vigilante isn’t it?
Senator Joyce:
Yeah and of course everyone says oh well it’s my cause, therefore I believe that they should have tax deductibility status and if you believe that then where does this stop? Do we have other people ticketing hospitals or finding whatever issue is close to their heart and therefore threatening or breaking the law just because they believe their cause is right? I mean you can’t do it. The law is the law and if you don’t want to obey it, then you suffer the consequences and you certainly shouldn’t get a tax deduction for it.
2GB Presenter:
You mentioned Greenpeace. Do you think they should be denied charitable status?
Senator Joyce:
I think any organisation that endorses people breaking the law shouldn’t get a tax deduction. Why should the Australian taxpayer foot the bill and carry an organisation that is endorsing a process which breaks the law of your land. It’s not right, other people would get a conviction over it, and you should get a tax deduction because of it.
2GB Presenter:
I guess also when you get to environmental groups and some others; it’s very blurry where the line is between being a political organisation and being a charity in the way you would compare it to say a group trying to get some equipment for their local hospital. Because in some areas, it’s really debateable what the pros and cons are of what they’re trying to do.
Senator Joyce:
Well I think people have a clear idea of what charitable organisations are. I can think of St Vincent’s de Paul, the Salvation Army or the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service. But some of these other organisations, they’re pursuing their particular political cause and their particular political cause is at complete odds with other peoples. In some instances, their mechanism or what they want to do is shut down people down to put them out of business. I don’t know whether that is, you know, you go down to the forest and put the salt up trees and in some instances, destroy the equipment of working families down there. Well is that aligned to a so called charity? I think that would disturb a lot of people.
2GB Presenter:
Senator, I watched Sky News last night. Kieran Gilbert was talking to Bob Brown and it seemed to me that, listening to that interview, that perhaps the love affair between Mr Brown and our Prime Minister is starting to decidedly sour, it seems they won’t be having regular cups of tea anymore.
Senator Joyce:
Well, I’ll believe it when I see them having a divorce. I mean, the last thing I remember is of them, both with wattle corsages on, were sitting in front of the big book, it looked like a registry book and they were all happy, smiley faces as they signed it. Now if this is authentic, then Bob Brown could say that he withdraws his support from Julia Gillard, but he hasn’t said that. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s still the Green-Labor-Independent arrangement, the glee club. It’s the glee club that are sending us into the debt that we’ve currently got, which is creating the fiasco which is currently our nation.
2GB Presenter:
So, this brouhaha about the forests in Tasmania, this is nothing more than a lovers’ spat?
Senator Joyce:
Yes well look, I wouldn’t put too much credence in it. I will judge them by their actions. At this point in time, I don’t think Adam Bandt, oh he might have voted against the government once. So judge them by their actions and not by their words, I think what they realise is the Australian people don’t like the fact that their government has been lead around by the nose, by the Greens.
2GB Presenter:
What about this deal that’s being talked about between Labor and the Coalition? The Fin Review has been reporting on this today about overhauling national environmental laws. In other words, streamlining the process for getting approvals, and giving some of that power to the states. Now the Greens are against it, the Coalition is in principle, for it; the fact that there could be an arrangement on an environmental issue between the Coalition and the Labor party; do you think maybe add to the weight that the Greens are going to bail out at some stage?
Senator Joyce:
No, I don’t. I think that in the end the Greens must have more influence in our nation then in many instances than the Labor party. The reason our nation is going towards a carbon tax is, you know this so called new tax which is apparently going to cool the planet, which if you have a look on the news, this is what’s happening in Victoria and the Southern Alps and the snow. Well they must be doing a very good job because the place seems to have become definitely colder lately. There you go, the reason we’ve got all this garbage is because the Greens run the agenda for the Labor party. Now there are Labor party supporters and there are Labor party families who don’t like the fact that the Greens run the show, so they go through this sort of smoke and mirror trick of saying ‘oh well, we’re not really together.’ Well you’re still shacked up at the same house so it looks like you’re awfully together to me.
2GB Presenter:
You just mentioned the carbon tax Senator, the ailing car industries have come out today and said government grants are going to be eaten up by the carbon tax anyway. I mean is it sort of like robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Senator Joyce:
Well it is. This is absurd. One of our last strategic advantages we had in this nation was cheap power. You had a choice between cheap power and cheap wages. Now the Labor party and the Greens and the Independents decided that we don’t want cheap power anymore. So seeing as they want dear power, are they suggesting now that we have cheap wages or are we just going to lose the jobs? If the car industry closes down, then there is going to be a massive loss of jobs. And of course, if you haven’t got a manufacturing industry, you start putting yourself in the precarious position: no manufacturing industry, what happens in a time of national crisis? You rely on other people to supply you with the basic products to defend yourself?
2GB Presenter:
Yeah, a lot of parallels there with the debate that goes on about food as well isn’t there, but when it comes to manufacturing, at what point do you say that it’s right for us to prop manufacturing up? Does it risk going back a bit to the old protectionist days where something that’s inefficient is propped up?
Senator Joyce:
Well I think you’ve got to be smart enough to walk and chew gum at the same time and try and bring about the efficiencies, produce the products that people want, make sure that you’re not completely protective, but you also have to see that through the eyes of...if you shut down the manufacturing industry now, I don’t know whether, you might have an alternative manufacturing industry to motorcars, but if you don’t have a base manufacturing industry that can support for instance, a domestic steel supply, then you don’t have a steel industry, you don’t have any of the other products that are associated with it and you start creating real problems there and I think the question the nation asks itself is, with the support you pay to the car industry, do you pick that up in other areas because by reason you’ve got a steel industry which means that you will still domestically supply other products. If we get to a point where our dollar falls, obviously the price of products being imported will go through the roof, and people will say that industry that may not be efficient now will be highly efficient then. But you can’t just strike a match and light up the manufacturing industry again. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
2GB Presenter:
The Prime Minister proudly proclaims that China too has set up a carbon tax, and of course theirs is a $1.55 a ton, and ours is $23. Where does that take us?
Senator Joyce:
Is Julia going to go over and monitor it for us is she? I mean, good luck wandering around the streets of Beijing and Shanghai monitoring their carbon tax. They’re talking about the introduction of it there towards 2015. It is not in now. What we do know is that our $23 a ton tax to make people poorer, just take a look around your house as you speak now, every power point is going to become a collection mechanism for the Australian Taxation Office for the new broad based consumption tax. So every time you put on your toaster, you’re poorer because you believe someone in Canberra can change the temperature of the globe. I think what China will do, even what India will do is that they will look after their own people. They probably have every intention of making industry more efficient because that’s how you make money, but I don’t think they’ll be driven by carbon taxes. I will believe it when I see it, and the monitoring arrangements I think will be something that is vague.
2GB Presenter:
Ok, we’ll leave it there for today. Thanks so much for joining us.