‘Time to unshackle the bush from crippling taxes, bad policy,’ says Adam Giles
Originally published by Adam Gilesof National News Network
24.08.2026
Compounding this bureaucratic burden is a tax system that actively punishes hard work. Australia now faces record public debt approaching $1 trillion, yet governments continue to spend recklessly while failing to recognise that no nation in history has ever taxed its way to prosperity.
Sky-high energy prices, driven by a blinkered obsession with unreliable wind and solar power and handing out massive taxpayer funded subsidies, have inflated operational costs from local irrigation pumps to regional freight logistics. That is why grocery prices are so high.
We must stop treating the bush as a cash cow for capital cities and start freeing up the people who create our real wealth. We do not need government handouts; we need government to get out of the way.
The path forward requires bold, structural reform.
First, we must establish a special economic zone across our north, such as the more than 7000 such zones that have been established very successfully around the world. This will open up economic growth, and drive jobs and wealth to many regional Northern Australians.
These Special Economic Zones should be established above the 26th parallel and across the entire Northern Territory, offering full tax rebates for personal income tax and an end to business hampering taxes, payroll tax, license fees, and stamp duty, plus cut the inflation causing tax on fuel and reduce other government tape, to attract private investment.
Then we must end federal departments and their expense and regulations, where similar functions are carried out by the states, removing duplication and duplicate approvals processes that wastes time, adds expense and stalls regional projects for years.
And we must exit the Paris accord and its consequential net zero policy and deliver lower energy costs to enable our industries to be globally cost competitive.
This damage is not temporary, and unless urgently reversed, will lead to less opportunities and lower living standards for Australians for a very long time to come. Wake up Australia!
Finally, we must reinvest in our regional arteries, returning some of the taxes to our regions, building weatherproof roads and airports, backing our local volunteer emergency services, providing adequate hospital care, and letting farmers build dams to help secure water supplies.
The Australian spirit was forged by pioneers who weren’t held back by government tape and worked this country with grit and ambition to build a better future for themselves and their families.
Cut the tape, drop the government wastage so that deterring taxes can be dropped, and unshackle the bush so regional Australia can help lead our nation out of the crises that our government has caused.
– Adam Giles is Chief Executive Officer Hancock Agriculture and S. Kidman & Co.
Hancock Prospecting is the national presenting partner of the Bush Summit.
This article is part of the Bush Summit series supported by Hancock Prospecting, Woolworths, Ampol, AAMI, Toyota, Powerhouse Museum, Clubs NSW, Qantas, The South Australian Government, Northern Territory Government, Invasive Species Council, Cruise Lines International Association, Greyhounds NSW, Charles Sturt University and Dubbo Regional Council.
Look across regional Australia, from North Queensland and the vast cattle stations of the Kimberley to the fertile fields of the Mallee, Western Victoria and Tasmania. Our nation was built on the bush.
Regional Australia feeds 28 million citizens at home, exports to over 50 million abroad, and digs the minerals that are the engine room of our country.
Yet we must confront the truth: the people who feed, clothe, power and provide the main revenue for this country are being held back by an out-of-touch political establishment.
Australia is being strangled by an unchecked, swollen, growing and very costly bureaucracy.
Every hour a small-business owner or farmer spends filling in forms for overlapping federal, state and local agencies is an hour stolen from running and growing their business.
Government tape is a direct financial drain that kills private sector innovation and investment and drives up the cost of living for every family.