Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson welcomes the passage of the amended backpacker tax at a lower tax rate of 10.5% through the Senate today. He calls upon National Party backbenchers to take a stand for their communities and cross the floor next week to support the lower rate.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “It’s a simple test for the Nats next week. Do they want to maintain Australia’s competitive advantage when it comes to agricultural production or not?

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson welcomes the news that the factory-freezer vessel Geelong Star has left Australian water.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “This situation is bizarre. The fisheries authority has posted a mysterious statement on their website about the Geelong Star no longer being in Australian waters. They haven’t said when it left, where it is has gone and if it is coming back.

Greens Treasury spokesperson for Treasury, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, says that unless Malcolm Turnbull radically changes Australia’s economic settings those who are currently the economic winners will continue to prosper at the expense of those who are being left behind.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “Turnbull’s economic plan of corporate and top-end income tax cuts and slashing social welfare payments is a Reagan-era prescription that will only worsen the modern economic ailments of our time.

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has strongly criticised the Federal Environment Minister, Josh Frydenberg for granting a blanket exemption for the NSW government to undertake a shark netting program.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “The Environment Minister is misusing a clause in the EPBC Act that exists to allow communities to respond to national emergencies like bushfires, wars and floods without seeking approval if there might be interactions with endangered species.

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has used the latest EPA reporting on the state of Macquarie Harbour to write to Federal Environment Minister to ask him to reconsider the 2012 decision that the salmon farming expansion did not require assessment under the EPBC Act.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “In the Senate Inquiry the Greens recommended that if any new information came to light or the impacts identified in the leaked reports are not solved, then the Federal Government needs to step in.

Peter Whish-Wilson, Greens Treasury spokesperson, provides the following comments about the government’s ongoing backpacker tax saga.

“Yesterday Barnaby was talking bulldust on the backpacker tax start date, today he’s playing the xenophobia card about foreign workers undercutting Australian jobs. He’s gone from spreading misinformation to ungrounded fearmongering.

“You have to wonder if government would have done better if anyone other than Barnaby was the agriculture minister. If Richard Colbeck was still around then I am sure this would have been killed two years ago.

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, announces the Greens position on the Government’s backpacker tax Bill.

Senator Whish-Wilson said “The Greens want backpackers to be taxed at the same rate as residents. However, we will support the cross-bench amendment to reduce the government’s 19% rate to 10.5%. With the Greens and Labor support of this amendment, the Bill will likely return to the House at a lower rate and the Government has said they will kill it.

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, provides the following response to the government’s increasingly desperate attempts to save itself from self-imposed humiliation on its backpacker tax.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “The spree of media releases from the government and agencies yesterday shows that they are making it up as they go along with the backpacker tax; desperately trying to shift the blame to anyone but themselves over the farce that they created.

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has referred Tassal to the Senate for a potential breach of parliamentary privilege following allegations on 4 Corners that they attempted to influence a Senate Inquiry witness.