Stop Labor's Fresh Food Tax

Labor’s new fresh food tax will unfairly target local farmers, worsening the current cost-of-living crisis and increasing grocery prices for families.

It will impose a new biosecurity protection levy on Australian farmers, rather than international importers.

Stand with us and stand up to this big new tax on Australian producers and consumers.

What is the Fresh Food Tax?

Labor’s fresh food tax is a new tax on families and farmers amid a cost-of-living crisis.

Dubbed by Labor as a ‘biosecurity protection levy’, the new tax will force Australian farmers to pay for the biosecurity risks of international importers – in other words, forcing our own Aussie farmers to pay for risks created by their competitors.

It will cause enormous damage to the hip pockets of Australian families and farmers, by driving up the cost of fresh food.

Every Australian family and farmer has a right to feel angry about Labor’s new tax.

It is an attack on families and farmers and it must be stopped.

Why don't The Nationals support it?

Labor’s fresh food tax makes absolutely no sense and will hurt families and farmers who are already under pressure.

The tax is impossible for The Nationals to support because it is fundamentally wrong. After all, in what parallel universe would a government charge its own farmers to pay for the risks their competitors are creating?

The Nationals stand shoulder to shoulder with more than 50 agricultural representative groups, who signed a joint letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressing unified opposition about the new tax.

While some industries may be forced to pay millions, and others only a small amount, the administrative burden will also be huge.

A future Coalition Government will stop this madness and instead charge importers of foreign products to pay for the biosecurity risks they pose, not Australian farmers, through an importer container levy. We have a plausible pathway that will protect our industry, without punishing our own farmers.

This measure will save our producers of agriculture, forestry and fishery, while ensuring our agriculture industry can thrive and be protected from biosecurity risks.

Labor’s dodgy policy follows a disingenuous consultation process and is expensive, confusing, risky and flawed, putting the entire voluntary levy system at risk.

Who will be impacted?

84 agricultural commodities will be taxed but the money will go towards consolidated revenue, rather than biosecurity protection. It is a money-grabbing, sneaky tax by Labor.

Almost all Australians will be impacted by Labor’s senseless new tax, because farmers will be forced to pass on costs, which will be felt by families at the checkout.

It is the absolute last thing families need during a cost-of-living crisis. It is another squeeze on one of the most important weekly purchases for families – fresh food.

In a rushed and confusing move, Labor will set the rate as a proportion of an industry’s average gross value of production over a three-year period. Labor still can’t explain how this will be paid or collected.

Labor is treating our Aussie farmers with contempt.