MP George Christensen has said that a threat to quit the Liberal National party over the backpacker tax is a “moot point” because he now predicts the government would ditch the controversial revenue measure.
The comments, reported in the Courier Mail on Sunday, signal the next priority for the conservative MP will be to force a backdown on the backpacker tax, after he led a successful revolt on superannuation that resulted in major changes to government policy.
But the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has defended Christensen’s intervention on super and the backpacker tax, saying he is a team player seeking to improve policy.
The Courier Mail reported that before the election Christensen told voters in his Dawson electorate that he would quit the LNP if the tax remained.
Asked about whether the threat still stood now, Christensen reportedly replied: “I believe the government is going to axe the backpacker tax and put in place arrangements that farmers can accept.
“I’m not trying to destabilise but I was that confident such a change will occur that I gave that commitment to locals when I was asked about it before the election.”
The backpacker tax, which was due to take effect from 1 July, was a surprise inclusion in the 2015 budget estimated to raise $540m.
Currently, backpackers are able to access the $18,200 tax-free threshold, the low-income tax offset and the lower tax rate of 19% for income above the tax-free threshold up to $37,000.
As a result of the proposed changes, working holidaymakers will be treated as non-residents and taxed at 32.5% from their first dollar.
In May the government announced it would delay the start of the backpacker tax by six months, to 1 January 2017, but refused to guarantee it will scrap the tax after a review. Submissions for the review have now closed and a decision on the measure is expected before the end of the year.
On Sunday Dutton told ABC’s Insiders that the treasurer, Scott Morrison is “working through the issue” of the backpacker tax and “if there’s an announcement to make it will be made in due course”.
Morrison was “talking to people like George and other backbenchers, particularly in regional areas where agriculture is a big problem in terms of wanting to pick fruit and get food to markets that’s rotting on vines and on trees and they can’t get young Australians to work in those jobs,” he said.
Dutton said that Christensen and others had indicated through the superannuation debate that they want “the best outcome possible for their community and for their country”.
“They should be admired for that. But I think George is a team player, our team is working well.”
On Thursday a cross-party group of MPs including Jacqui Lambie, independents Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson and Nick Xenophon called for the backpacker tax to be scrapped.
On Wednesday the minister for resources and Northern Australia, Matt Canavan, said: “I am confident that we will come to a better situation, which does tackle the fundamental problem that, after the changes announced in relation to the carbon tax, many backpackers pay no tax now.
“There does need to be some change but also deliver a competitive outcome for agricultural and other sectors that rely on backpackers,” he said.
The Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, said on Sunday that people “might have voted for Malcolm [Turnbull] but you got George Christensen”.
“Certainly [Christensen] got elected in his seat but it appears like he is running the government.
“He has determined superannuation policy and is out there threatening to cross the floor again on the backpacker tax.”
On Wednesday Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, said the tax would fail to raise $500m as planned because backpackers would stop coming to Australia.
“It’s time they got on with the review because backpackers, even though the tax is not in yet, backpackers stopped coming the day after the 2015 budget and it’s already hurting regional economies,” he said.
Fitzgibbon defended Labor booking the $500m estimated to be raised by the measure in its pre-election budget statement. He said Labor had done so because the government had run a “deceitful campaign” by pretending it would retain the measure.
