One Nation angers miners after rookie MP sides with Greens on fuel rebates
One Nation is under pressure to clarify its position on fuel tax credits after its rookie MP voted to wind back the rebates, a position opposed by mining and farming groups.
The Farrer MP, David Farley, sided with the Greens and teal independents in a lower house vote to cap the scheme, which refunds miners, farmers and other industries that use heavy machinery the 52.6c a litre excise applied to petrol and diesel.
The amendment – which was moved by the Bradfield MP, Nicolette Boele – was defeated after Labor and the Coalition rejected it.
Farley’s stance endorses a position that the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) and National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) have labelled an attack on farmers, miners and truck drivers – constituencies One Nation claims to represent.
The MCA chief executive, Tania Constable, whose organisation this week launched a new campaign to protect the scheme from “noisy activists”, said Farley’s position on the vote was “really disappointing”.
“David Farley is a regional member and it was his first big opportunity to show what he’s made of, and he voted against regional Australia,” Constable told Sky News.
“He voted against the farmers, the fishers, the construction industry. He voted against the miners. He voted against regional Australia and we’re really deeply disappointed that he threw his lot in with the Greens and the teals.”
Farley’s vote puts him in the same camp as climate campaigners, unions, rank-and-file Labor members and mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, who view the rebate scheme as a handbrake to decarbonisation and want it capped at $50m a company annually.
Farmers and other “small users” would not be captured under that model, which was replicated in Boele’s amendment, meaning Farley was not voting against those groups.
Guardian Australia has not been able to establish if Farley – who was only sworn into parliament earlier this month – intended to vote for Boele’s amendment or made a mistake.
The Farrer MP told the Nine papers that Tuesday’s vote was “political theatre” and replied “No” when asked if he was caught out by the speed of the process.
Farley did not respond to calls from Guardian Australia and One Nation declined to comment.
If Farley did intend to support the amendment, it would represent the latest case of policy freelancing after he backed current migration levels and signalled he would fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag in his office.
He later clarified on Facebook that his office would fly the Australian flag and that no flag would stand above or replace it.
The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, earlier this month said she “had to have a conversation” with Farley about his positions.
Guardian Australia has been told One Nation privately assured mining bosses on Wednesday that Farley made a mistake and the party supports the existing fuel tax credit regime.
The Nationals seized on Farley’s decision to side with the Greens and teals on the fuel tax credits vote, staging a press conference with the NFF CEO, Michael Guerin, to demand clarity on One Nation’s position.
“David Farley says it’s all theatrics,” the shadow resources minister, Susan McDonald, said. “If he wants theatrics, he should join a play group. But if he is serious about being a part of the Australian parliament, of taking his job and the voters that have sent him here seriously, he has got to think about what he is doing. Is this now One Nation policy?”
Asked if Farley should be forgiven if, as a rookie MP, he simply made a mistake on the chamber floor, the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, said: “I don’t think this is a place for training wheels.”
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, said Farley’s position showed One Nation was “all over the place”.
“I don’t really know where it is they stand, or who they’re fighting for, but that’s a matter for them,” he said.
