Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the disgraceful lack of action by the South Australian Labor government to help our farmers who are experiencing drought. The Commonwealth has funded $10 million to South Australia    for drought concessional loans, with applications to be assessed by—you guessed it—the state government and determined by the Minister for Agriculture, Leon Bignell. Each state is subject to exactly the same criteria for assessment.    Across the country there have been 394 applications, with 193 approved and almost $115 million approved to help struggling farmers who are in drought affected areas—except, of course, South Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology states:

Monthly rainfall over the southeast of South Australia … has been below average from August last year. Serious or severe rainfall deficiencies have been observed in parts of these regions for various medium-term periods since late 2013.

Despite this finding by the bureau, and despite the hundreds of applications made in other states and 193 approvals under exactly the same criteria, Minister Bignell and the South Australian state Labor government has failed to approve a single drought concessional loan for South Australia. Despite this failure to approve a single concessional loan, South Australia is retaining the administrative funding the Commonwealth provides to the state. It is outrageous that South Australian farmers are being ignored while state Labor sits on these funds. Leon Bignell needs to get off his backside and start approving these much-needed loans