Tony Seabrook Promoting IPA Red Tape Research on 6PR Mornings with Gary Adshead

On 27 September 2023, the President of the Pastoral and Graziers Association (PGA), Tony Seabrook promoted the IPA’s research regarding red tape facing farmers in Western Australia on 6PR Mornings with Gary Adshead.

Below is a transcript the discussion.

Gary Adshead:

I wonder if you can answer this question, can you tell me then when I go to the supermarket, why I’m still paying what appears to be top dollar for my cutlets and so on when it comes to sheep then?

Tony Seabrook:

Well, here’s the simple thing. The Institute of Public Affairs put out a report a while ago. Agriculture in Western Australia is the most regulated state in the whole of Australia. We are drowning in red tape. We’re drowning in regulations. But the simple thing the state government could do is payroll tax. Why would you tax a company on the payroll? Tax it on its profit. But why would you add to the cost of running that business? Most abattoirs will be paying payroll tax, and it’s a lot of money. And it’s a state tax that doesn’t do anything more than decrease the competitiveness of our own industries. So you get into stamp duty, you get into compliance, you get into payroll tax. The state government, utterly tone deaf, not prepared to engage with agriculture. I’d sit down with the premier tomorrow if he was prepared to listen. But I think somehow or another, there’s some sort of intrinsic hatred or contempt for agriculture deeply embedded in both the federal and state labor parties. I don’t understand that because we’re the people that feed you.

This transcript of Tony Seabrook on 6PR has been edited for clarity