May 6, 2026 • 5 mins
Our Australian correspondent on the upcoming Budget and the scrapping of the huge inland rural rail project from Brisbane to Melbourne.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here is our Aussie correspondent based out of Sydney, Chris
Russell's's name. Next week Chris Elbow comes out with his budget.
We've got one here in New Zealand later in May.
Is there going to be anything and at all for farmers?
Does he care about farmers?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Look, the only good thing we've heard so far that
might be coming on the cards is the possibility of
being to extend At the moment they get this instant
right off of up to twenty thousand dollars a year,
so anything up the costs up that that can be
written off in the year that it was purchased. They
brought that in in COVID and they seem to have
extended it. But it's never been a permanent feature. So
(00:36):
there is a rumor that they may make that a
permanent feature of people's tax returns. But that is the
only good news. I mean, they're considering imposing a minimum
thirty percent tax on family trust distributions. Now at the moment,
family trusts, which most of the farming successions and ownerships
are set around, only paid fifteen percent on the distribution.
(00:57):
And then of course in your hands it's taxable whatever
rate you pay, but fifteen percent tax is a lot lower,
and now they're talking about increasing that up to the
same as company tax, which is thirty percent. They're also
weighing whether to in fact get rid of some of
the capital gain scats concessions where you know you can
(01:17):
reduce the value by fifty percent and then another fifty
percent depending on how long you've owned the item, and these.
Of course, anything before twenty I think it's twenty September
nineteen eighty five is capital gains tax free. That will remain,
But the other concessions they think of getting rid of those.
So there's all sorts of things that are wheedling away.
(01:37):
They're removing the concessions that older people had for paying
for their health insurance. So we've got a higher concession
once you turn over seventy understanding that you know that
you're probably on a pension, either paid yourself or from
the government, but all that looks like being even out,
so will be no different to a twenty one year old.
(01:58):
And there's a big outcry about that. So this government's
desperate for money. They're bankrupt. We've got trillion dollars worth
of debt. Twenty years ago we had zero debt and
they're just hunting around trying to find something that isn't
going to sea them straight out on their ear and
the lext election in two years time, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Farm prices have record highs.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yes, well that's something which I think that people are
surprised about. But there is in fact quite a low growth.
But there's about six million hectares of farmland was bought
and sold last year and fine prices rose about two
point eight percent, and they're saying that this we're now
looking at a national medium price which is a record
(02:41):
of ten five hundred and sixteen dollars per hectare, So
that's quite a lot of money. But it's now showing
clear signs of cooling. The demand is going down, and
I think people are a bit more feeling under pressure.
We've got this Alnino, potentially, we've got all sorts of
other factors which made me this is not quite as
good a year. But nonetheless ten thousand dollars a hect here.
(03:04):
I remember, you know, when I was a young fellow,
if you providing you were happy to live in the outback,
you could pick up country for ten or twenty dollars
an acre.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You have talked or we have talked in the past
about this proposed inland rail route from Melbourne through to
the middle and then up to Brisbane. It's basically an
egg line. It's going to be stopped in its track,
snow pun and tended.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yes, well, they've been building this for some time. It's
about sixteen hundred kilometers long. And the big attraction of
this is that for a start, you could have one
point eight kilometer long double stack train. Double stack means
one container on top of the other, so you got
a forty foot container on top of another forty foot
which you can't do on the coast because all the
tunnels and overhead wires and things over the tracks which
(03:51):
are where it's going. But out there you could. So
you've got farmers in midwest New South Wales who could
grow veggies and flowers and then get them up to
the New World Camp airport at Tawomba and fly them
into Singapore within forty eight hours to have a whole
new market that they would never have dreamed about. Whereas
the moment they've got to be trucked to Sydney and
(04:12):
then got on a plane in Sydney. It's not nearly
as feasible. So this was a real, really exciting project
for farmers. And of course the government now has said, well,
it was supposed to cost twenty billion dollars, it's now
up to thirty billion, with expected to cost another forty billion.
A lot of it because of the cost of some
(04:32):
of the regulation and green tape and red tape involved
in acquiring properties in midwestern New South Wales going through
national parks and state forests, and the government just said
that look too expensive. We're not going to do it anymore.
They've got little bits of it built, but there are
some key bits in the middle that aren't which make
the bits they built almost useless. They're not going to
(04:54):
stop acquiring land because the National Party in the opposition
has said that as soon as they get a colector
they will immediately recommence it because they do have a
real base in rural Australia where the Labor Party really
don't have a base there. That don't get any votes there.
I don't care about it really, and therefore you know
it's in their interest to say, well, let's save that
(05:14):
money and put it into the NDS or one of
the other schemes. That there's their pet scheme.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Anyhow, I've got to go, Chris, thanks for your time.
As always on the Country, No worries, Shamie
Here is our Aussie correspondent based out of Sydney, Chris
Russell's's name. Next week Chris Elbow comes out with his budget.
We've got one here in New Zealand later in May.
Is there going to be anything and at all for farmers?
Does he care about farmers?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Look, the only good thing we've heard so far that
might be coming on the cards is the possibility of
being to extend At the moment they get this instant
right off of up to twenty thousand dollars a year,
so anything up the costs up that that can be
written off in the year that it was purchased. They
brought that in in COVID and they seem to have
extended it. But it's never been a permanent feature. So
(00:36):
there is a rumor that they may make that a
permanent feature of people's tax returns. But that is the
only good news. I mean, they're considering imposing a minimum
thirty percent tax on family trust distributions. Now at the moment,
family trusts, which most of the farming successions and ownerships
are set around, only paid fifteen percent on the distribution.
(00:57):
And then of course in your hands it's taxable whatever
rate you pay, but fifteen percent tax is a lot lower,
and now they're talking about increasing that up to the
same as company tax, which is thirty percent. They're also
weighing whether to in fact get rid of some of
the capital gain scats concessions where you know you can
(01:17):
reduce the value by fifty percent and then another fifty
percent depending on how long you've owned the item, and these.
Of course, anything before twenty I think it's twenty September
nineteen eighty five is capital gains tax free. That will remain,
But the other concessions they think of getting rid of those.
So there's all sorts of things that are wheedling away.
(01:37):
They're removing the concessions that older people had for paying
for their health insurance. So we've got a higher concession
once you turn over seventy understanding that you know that
you're probably on a pension, either paid yourself or from
the government, but all that looks like being even out,
so will be no different to a twenty one year old.
(01:58):
And there's a big outcry about that. So this government's
desperate for money. They're bankrupt. We've got trillion dollars worth
of debt. Twenty years ago we had zero debt and
they're just hunting around trying to find something that isn't
going to sea them straight out on their ear and
the lext election in two years time, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Farm prices have record highs.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yes, well that's something which I think that people are
surprised about. But there is in fact quite a low growth.
But there's about six million hectares of farmland was bought
and sold last year and fine prices rose about two
point eight percent, and they're saying that this we're now
looking at a national medium price which is a record
(02:41):
of ten five hundred and sixteen dollars per hectare, So
that's quite a lot of money. But it's now showing
clear signs of cooling. The demand is going down, and
I think people are a bit more feeling under pressure.
We've got this Alnino, potentially, we've got all sorts of
other factors which made me this is not quite as
good a year. But nonetheless ten thousand dollars a hect here.
(03:04):
I remember, you know, when I was a young fellow,
if you providing you were happy to live in the outback,
you could pick up country for ten or twenty dollars
an acre.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You have talked or we have talked in the past
about this proposed inland rail route from Melbourne through to
the middle and then up to Brisbane. It's basically an
egg line. It's going to be stopped in its track,
snow pun and tended.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yes, well, they've been building this for some time. It's
about sixteen hundred kilometers long. And the big attraction of
this is that for a start, you could have one
point eight kilometer long double stack train. Double stack means
one container on top of the other, so you got
a forty foot container on top of another forty foot
which you can't do on the coast because all the
tunnels and overhead wires and things over the tracks which
(03:51):
are where it's going. But out there you could. So
you've got farmers in midwest New South Wales who could
grow veggies and flowers and then get them up to
the New World Camp airport at Tawomba and fly them
into Singapore within forty eight hours to have a whole
new market that they would never have dreamed about. Whereas
the moment they've got to be trucked to Sydney and
(04:12):
then got on a plane in Sydney. It's not nearly
as feasible. So this was a real, really exciting project
for farmers. And of course the government now has said, well,
it was supposed to cost twenty billion dollars, it's now
up to thirty billion, with expected to cost another forty billion.
A lot of it because of the cost of some
(04:32):
of the regulation and green tape and red tape involved
in acquiring properties in midwestern New South Wales going through
national parks and state forests, and the government just said
that look too expensive. We're not going to do it anymore.
They've got little bits of it built, but there are
some key bits in the middle that aren't which make
the bits they built almost useless. They're not going to
(04:54):
stop acquiring land because the National Party in the opposition
has said that as soon as they get a colector
they will immediately recommence it because they do have a
real base in rural Australia where the Labor Party really
don't have a base there. That don't get any votes there.
I don't care about it really, and therefore you know
it's in their interest to say, well, let's save that
(05:14):
money and put it into the NDS or one of
the other schemes. That there's their pet scheme.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Anyhow, I've got to go, Chris, thanks for your time.
As always on the Country, No worries, Shamie
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