18 March 2009

House of Representatives

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry—Tony Burke

Mr BURKE—Thanks very much Mr Speaker and I thank the shadow minister for agriculture for his question. He refers to the abolition of the 40 per cent export subsidy which was proposed in the budget papers of the previous government. The previous government had it expiring at the end of the current financial year, and it does expire at the end of the current financial year. As a result, and the movement—we had ABARE model what the cost would actually be to exporters, and the ABARE modelling came back that the costs to exporters would be the same as the equivalent of a half of one cent movement in the Australian dollar.