Message for the senate cross bench

 

Federal Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt has a message for the Senate cross bench: stop holding our farmers to ransom and finalise the backpacker tax.

“We have an agreed position on the backpacker tax, yet here we have a group of cross bench senators which are holding our farmers to ransom,” he said.

Mr Pitt is encouraging stakeholders to get on the phone to the Senate cross benchers.

“Ring the One Nation senators, ring the Labor senators and demand that they do something for regional economies. The instability and uncertainty has been incredibly unhelpful, the people it damages are the ones in the regions, particularly our farming communities.

“We need to ensure that the cross bench senators get the message loud and clear: we need this dealt with now.”

Mr Pitt said there was absolutely no science around what is being proposed.

“You can’t just run around and pluck numbers out of the sky like Senator Lambie has. The backpacker tax needs to be finalised and it needs to be done before next Thursday.

“The 19 percent figure is an agreed position, we’ve come to that after negotiations with agriculture and tourism industry stakeholders but now we need to get it through the Senate.

“I expect the Labor party to be shameless and use political tactics, but surely somebody can see sense on the cross bench and support the position being put forward.”