At that rate there would be no part of industry that was not in receipt of taxpayers' money and thus under government influence. He then accused the Government of picking losers by, for example, retaining the diesel fuel 'subsidy' for mining and agriculture. Furthermore, Colebatch claimed that the Labour government's subsidies and taxbreaks to industry were responsible for a rapid increase in exports between 1990 to 1996, while the Liberal Government is, of course, responsible for the decline in the rate of increase in exports. Let us now do what Colebatch evidently cannot do and that is apply economic reasoning to the subject. Now so long as any company is a net taxpayer, any governments payments it receives are not subsidies.
Payments only become subsidies when their value exceeds what the recipients pay in taxes.
In short, such payments are really tax rebates. Looked at in this way we realise that agricultural and mining industries are not receiving any subsidies at all. Moreover, it has completely escaped Colebatch's 'keen intelligence' that agriculture and mining are also exporters. Any industry will expand its output if it is given subsidies or granted favourable tax treatment. Colebatch has succumbed to the fallacy of composition by assuming that what is good for industries he favours must be good for the country.