Burke needs a Bex, a banana and a good lie down |
17th September, 2009 |
It has been a long, hard week for Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke, and the strain is showing.
Despite being sworn in as a minister in the Rudd Government almost two years ago, Mr Burke blamed the Coalition for his own decisions to allow the importation of Filipino bananas and to cut quarantine funding.
The truth is that Filipino bananas were never allowed into Australia under the Coalition, but Mr Burke has opened the door.
The truth is that Mr Burke has cut quarantine funding, 125 jobs and tried to end a critical rebate on certification costs for exporters.
The Coalition stopped him from taking away that rebate. The Coalition had strong allies – apart from the vast majority of industry groups, the Government’s own agency Austrade stated the proposal would hit exporters hard and would have “wider undesirable economic impacts”.
“As a Minister for Agriculture prepared to make the hard decisions, I copped any fair criticism on the chin,” said Nationals Leader Warren Truss. “I certainly didn’t blame Labor for my own actions.
“But if Mr Burke is finding it all too difficult and wants to pass his important responsibilities back to the safe hands of The Nationals, I am sure we can accommodate him,” Mr Truss said.
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