This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The 15% backpacker tax has passed the Senate but in the fallout Pauline Hanson has criticised her One Nation senator Rod Culleton for defying the government to push for a lower rate.



The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, has criticised the Coalition for not initiating the compromise with his party, after the Greens delivered the government the final votes in return for an extra $100m for Landcare.

The treasurer, Scott Morrison, has indicated offsetting savings will be found elsewhere to pay for the deal.

Greens support 15% backpacker tax in return for $100m for Landcare Read more

On Thursday the passage of the backpacker tax was imperilled by a breakout group of crossbenchers, including senators Jacqui Lambie, Derryn Hinch and Culleton, who pushed for a 13% rate.

The Greens originally favoured a rate of zero but did a deal with the government to pass the tax at 15%, warning no deal would have resulted in the unacceptable rate of 32.5%.

The tax passed about 8:30pm as the unlikely alliance of the Coalition, One Nation and the Greens gagged debate. Hanson thanked the Greens for compromising.

But on Sky News, the One Nation leader took aim at Culleton and Derryn Hinch, who she said refused to accept a 13% rate when she pushed it as a compromise.

“I was so annoyed that Rod Culleton actually crossed the floor and he wouldn’t come to the 13%,” Hanson said.

The comments appear to confuse Culleton’s position as he in fact pushed for a 13% rate and refused to accept his party’s compromise for a 15% rate.

“Rod said he’s a farmer. No. He is a farmer of a different sector, he does not have backpackers. Derryn Hinch, what’s his connection with it? Have they ever really gone out to speak to the farmers?

“I was so angry that they would not agree to the government’s [proposed compromised of 15%].”

Despite striking a deal with the government, on Friday Di Natale revealed that “through this whole period, we didn’t receive a phone call from any minister from within the government – not one”.

“In the end we showed some leadership in the afternoon,” he said, by approaching the government to end the “awful standoff”.

Morrison told ABC’s AM the backpacker tax deal achieved “70% of what was originally in the 2015-16 budget”.

“And that’s the 45th parliament, and on occasions these deals will go right down to the wire.

“It would’ve been preferable for that not to have played out that way and for this matter to be resolved some time ago, but there was a lot of politics being played and in the end the Labor party played themselves into the ground.”

Morrison said the backpacker tax would raise $560m, even after compromises with Nick Xenophon to allow Australians to pick $5,000 of fruit without losing welfare.

He said the mid-year economic statement on 19 December would show that the $100m for Landcare “will not come at any additional cost to the budget”, indicating that offsetting savings will be found elsewhere.

Morrison acknowledged the Greens had approached the government to reach the compromise.

The backpacker tax split is just one of a number of cases of division in One Nation.

On Thursday, Culleton put up a motion for the Senate to recognise that when it referred his eligibility to the high court it was unaware that the judge in his larceny case was not able to sentence him to imprisonment because the conviction was in absentia.

The motion directed the attorney general, George Brandis, to explain why he had not told the Senate that fact. It passed, without One Nation support.

It was the second time the party has split over the issue, after Hanson agreed to her own senator’s eligibility being referred to the court.

Culleton has previously claimed that Hanson will support him when she has the “full facts”. But the failure to support the motion suggests One Nation has no appetite to assist Culleton in his push to have the Senate’s referral torn up to save him fighting the case in court.