House debates

Monday, 29 July 2019

Bills

Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2019; Second Reading

3:54 pm

Photo of Lisa ChestersLisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the amendment moved by the member for Hunter. It disappoints me that I am here speaking again on this bill. The government have danced around reforms to the farm household support since they've been in government. Here we are again, and we're finally dealing with it. The member for Hunter does raise some valid questions. Have they finally got it right? Are the reforms before us today actually going to deliver the reform that the government need? I think the government themselves are sceptical just judging by the lack of speakers they have on this bill. For all their talk—and we've heard speaker after speaker on issue after issue and question after question ranting about supporting farmers—where are they to speak on this legislation?

This legislation is actually the one bill before the House that would deliver support for farmers tomorrow—not in two years time, like the drought fund, and not like their campaign in relation to trespass on farms, which is largely the role of the states. This bill, the Farm Household Support Amendment Bill, will help right now farmers who are suffering the effects of drought, those who are in drought declared areas. So we have to question the government and their ability to deliver for farmers based upon their experience with this bill.

The farm household allowance goes back to when Labor was last in government. It was first in the budget and declared a priority in 2012-13. Whilst back then it was estimated it would cost just under $100 million, we weren't in the severe state of drought we are today. It was demand driven and uncapped. So there was an expectation that, if the drought got worse, it would in fact increase. It was set at the equivalent Newstart rate, or youth allowance if under 22, for accessing for up to three years. Case managers were assigned to support recipients as they undertook activity to improve their long-term viability and financial situation. I will get to the rate of Newstart and accessing Centrelink, because that has been a big part of the challenge when it comes to our farmers accessing this allowance.

Unfortunately Labor did not win the next election and so it fell to this government to implement the farm household allowance. Quite frankly, they've stuffed it up. There is no other way you could put it. With all the different ag ministers they've had and all the different ministers they've hard in Social Services, they've really struggled to implement this in an effective way to ensure that farmers get the support they need when they need it. As a result of that, we've had review after review into how they've got this so wrong. You just have to read the report of the government's own review into the farm household allowance to see how badly it has been managed. The review made a number of recommendations on this measure and how it's failing. What comes up a lot in the recommendations is that the government should decouple the farm household allowance from social security legislation, tailor it to deliver and recognise the unique and often complex financial businesses in relation to agricultural businesses.

For a government that claims to intimately understand farmers, why has it taken so long for this bill to get here? Why has it taken so long for them to come up with reforms and deliver them so that more people can access the allowance?

Another recommendation was to redesign the program and have a farmer-centric approach to mutual obligation and allow some flexibility to acknowledge the wide range of reasons why people access income support and ensure that progress is not hindered and that it does not create welfare dependency. Again, if the government really reflected the bush, they would know how to do it. And, yet, they have failed to date.

Another key recommendation was to improve communication. The report talked about how the government need to rebrand the program to more clearly communicate the objectives. Farmers in some communities don't want to access this program; they would rather struggle. That's because of the complexity involved, the stigma involved and, quite frankly, the way this government demonise anybody who seeks support from Centrelink. Ultimately, at the end of the day, this is a Newstart payment. Perhaps if they didn't vilify people on Newstart payments so much, more farmers would be willing to take this up.

The recommendations also talk about improving data collection methods to evaluate whether the allowance is working, to continue to adapt and change in a timely manner to ensure that the allowance is reaching the people who need it. These are the recommendations of the government's own report. Here we are today. This wasn't the first bill that this parliament debated; no, it's a bill we're debating this week. It aims to improve, but we haven't seen any demonstration that it will actually improve, farmers' ability to access.

Quite often, when we're on the ground in these communities, we hear about the confusion around eligibility. They've had to employ more and more financial counsellors to reach out to farmers to explain the process. What farmers are discovering is that they need a financial planner in order to access this program, much like our pensioners do to access the pension. Under this government, it has become so hard and so complex for people to access basic support payments that more and more of them are seeking financial planners. The good news for our farmers is that that comes subsidised, through a financial planner, in a government funded system. That is not so for our pensioners, who are paying out of their own pockets for financial planners to assess what rate of the pension they can receive. You've got to ask yourself: how adequate is our Public Service if people need to access private financial planning in order to get a payment that they're entitled to?

What's also disappointing, as I have mentioned, is the timing of this bill. This was first a measure in the 2012-13 budget, it was introduced in 2014 and here we are today finally fixing up the mistakes that this government made with the rollout. We all remember Hansard-gate and the doctoring that occurred under one of the ministers, but that shouldn't have stopped reform from happening to ensure that farmers were able to access this when they needed it. I'd also call on the government to consider who else in the community should be receiving support. When drought affects farmers, it affects their entire supply chain. It affects entire communities, as more and more farmers pull out or don't harvest or don't plant to harvest. What about the small shops in a town? What about the infrastructure in a town? Towns in our regions are continuing to die on this government's watch as more and more people move to metro areas or bigger regional cities in order to survive. It is disappointing that it has taken so long for this government to bring this bill forward. Whilst the government have moved on farm household assistance, I again say to them that they should look at what is linked to this bill and the fact that that could be a big reason why farmers aren't accessing it.

Newstart payments are too low. Whilst the government dance around the issue and blame each other for not speaking out, they have to consider raising the Newstart rate. It is an issue about decency and respect. I say to the government: just talk to farmers who are trying to survive on Newstart about how difficult it is; if you're not going to talk to farmers, at least listen to farmers. You can forgive the Australian people for thinking that this government only cares about farmers, even though it does it in a really bad way. This is one area where increasing Newstart will have a knock-on effect to support people who are seeking farm household support.

Then we get to the issue about Centrelink—again, accessing farm household assistance. Whilst you might get access to a financial planner, you are ultimately being processed by Centrelink. The fact that the government has cut so many staff from Centrelink and failed to invest in building up a strong Centrelink workforce means that processing claims are delayed and drawn out. Whether it be a farmer seeking farm household assistance, a pensioner seeking the pension or someone seeking youth allowance because they have just started university, I, like many people in this House, continue to hear of long delays; three to six months is not uncommon. The worst case was of someone trying for 13 months to access the pension. This particular constituent had all of their paperwork in, only to be told that their paperwork had expired and they had to start again. If the government was genuine about supporting people in need—people who have worked really hard their whole lives, whether it be on a farm or in a small business or for any other organisation, and are now seeking support—then it would invest more in Centrelink to make sure that staff had the skills, were directly employed and weren't subject to the outsourcing that is going on.

There is a need for more financial counsellors in the regions and there is a need to assess which areas are deemed 'drought affected' so they are able to access this. Planners have become more crucial as the forms required to be completed have become more complex. None of the people engaged that I have spoken to have said that accessing the farm household assistance has been easy. They have therefore talked down the program and told people not to bother. For the minimal amount that you get—because it relates to Newstart—it's hard work, demoralising and debilitating, and sometimes you get knocked back.

Farmers can be quite private and proud people, and knowing that people are prying into their personal life is something that is hard for them to overcome. Some have tried to take on the task of applying for this allowance and still are being caught out. For the talk, talk, talk of this government, they really have failed to listen to the concerns of people accessing this support payment and failed to adopt them in in these reforms. I hope what is before us today will help improve the access and I hope that the minister takes on board everything that our farmers are saying about the regulations and the support services, and adopts it going forward because, to date, in the five years they have had this program, they have failed to deliver for farmers. As I said at the beginning, this is the one bill before the House that will help people who are affected by drought, right now. It is not a fund that will kick in in two years' time to build infrastructure. This puts some money—not big money, but Newstart money—into the pockets of farmers who otherwise wouldn't qualify for Newstart.

For all of this government's talk about supporting farmers, they have really let the farmers down. They are quite happy to stand next to people for photo ops and go out there, do the tour and shake the hands, but they are not there to do the real reform that is needed. And that has been picked up, particularly by regional media. ABC's national rural reporter Kath Sullivan summed it up best at the end of last sitting week:

You could be forgiven for thinking Australia's farmers are front and centre in the national debate this week.

Between drought tours and bush summits, the Basin plan and activists trespassing on farms, you can barely turn on the box without seeing a pair of boots kick the dirt.

Farmers don't just make for pretty pictures, they're solid fodder for party politics.

While the attention is often welcome, it doesn't always translate to meaningful action.

That is the point. For all the photo ops, for all the poses, where is the meaningful action from this government? This bill is the one before the House that will deliver and create real action, yet I am not convinced it will go far enough to deliver the action our farmers need.

The report goes on to say that, for all of the lovely stories that we tell, it is leaving farm groups 'desperate' and rural groups 'underwhelmed'. WoolProducers vice-president and Victorian farmer Steve Harrison said this week: 'We're tired. We're looking down the barrel of a third consecutive failed spring.' He said of numerous politicians, state and federal, 'They're all talk and no action.' Whilst they will turn up for the photos, they won't turn up for the action.

I really hope the government does more and actually has more action. For all of their ranting in this place about the farmer, the farmer, the farmer, they are doing very little to help on the ground, day to day. Neither the talk about water from the previous minister nor the talk about grasslands from the minister in question actually deals with the fact that this is one measure that could help people. If they fixed Centrelink, if they increased Newstart, if they got genuine and practical support, if they rebuilt respect for our social security network, as opposed to demonising it, then just maybe the people most in need of support will access it when they need it.

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