July 28, 2010 THE Liberals are bowing to pressure from farmers to scrap forestry managed investment schemes and will review the "unfair" tax advantages.
This promise, which flies in the face of Liberal Party policy to support MIS, was made by the deputy leader of the Opposition, Julie Bishop, during a feisty, Liberal Party meeting at Casterton last week.
She admitted the Howard Government policy led to "abuse of the tax system" and "a level of inequity" and promised reviews that would see a "fairer outcome".
Ms Bishop and Wannon Liberal candidate Dan Tehan came under intense fire from farmers calling for the Coalition to change its MIS policy.
MIS is a hot topic in Wannon and independent candidate and anti-MIS campaigner Katrina Rainsford has criticised Mr Tehan for having a bet each way.
While the Liberal Party policy is pro-MIS, Mr Tehan said he thinks it is an unfair scheme.
Ms Rainsford, a former Liberal, said Mr Tehan could not be trusted because he worked for the Nationals when they supported MIS.
"It is too little, too late from him to now come out and say this after the Coalition has destroyed family farming with this policy for 15 years," Ms Rainsford said.
At the meeting, Coleraine farmer Peter Small asked if the Coalition would scrap MIS before it was used for carbon sink plantations.
Ms Bishop said while MIS had been welcomed in some communities, the framework of investment in agricultural properties needed reviewing.
"You raise a very good point about fairness - that a corporate investor gets this tax advantage that a farmer does not ... there is a level of inequity there," Ms Bishop said.
"We need to ... see if there's a framework that would encourage appropriate investment in rural communities and stop the abuse of the tax system that clearly occurred under some aspects of the MIS."
Mr Tehan went a step further and promised to work to get rid of "unfair tax-advantage" MIS schemes, used by Great Southern and Timbercorp, as they put farmers at a disadvantage to investment companies.
Lake Mundi farmer Kevin Stark said MIS bluegum plantations had driven out a generation of farmers and decimated rural communities.
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