Stewart McArthur (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Transport and Regional Services update the House on his discussions with banks about the financial impact of the ongoing drought? How will this assist farmers in rural communities, particularly in the drought affected northern part of Corangamite?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question and recognise that some of the safest agricultural parts of Australia are currently being affected by the severity of the drought that has beset the country, including parts of the member for Corangamite’s area of responsibility. As he indicated, the northern parts of Corangamite are normally associated with lush green pastures and now they are not. I understand that these are the worst conditions in that area of his electorate since 1967 and, of course, the terribly hot days last week have just about ended any prospect of a reasonable spring.

A lot of focus and attention is being given to the plight and the circumstances of the working families, the farming families, in the rural areas of Australia that are suffering from drought at the moment. It is important that all Australians understand that the average farmer can work all year and pay their mortgage, their kids’ school fees and all their bills and, at the end of that, there is no salary, no cash flow and nowhere to go. It was pleasing this morning that the Prime Minister and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry announced the extension of exceptional circumstances assistance until March 2008 to give a lot of the people in those parts of Australia confidence, knowing that the government is going to stand beside them and look after them and their interests as they go through this very difficult time.

The member for Corangamite asked about financial institutions and banks. Last week I wrote to the major banks and financial institutions across Australia asking that they be considerate and sympathetic towards the circumstances of a lot of their clients as they confront this severe drought. The response has been very positive. In fact, I managed to speak to the representatives of some of those banks at a conference here in Canberra over the weekend. They have already taken pre-emptive action in contacting their clients and getting them to understand how to best communicate their problems to their banking institutions at an early stage.

During the course of the conference, I had the opportunity of meeting personally with a couple of them and talking about how we can best assist them in that process. Incidentally, I know the member for Corangamite, with his interest in industrial relations, will be pleased to know that at this particular conference all the media were welcome to participate in every session. In fact, the conference was held at the National Press Club so that we could ensure that there was plenty of media participation in and coverage of all the debate and the discussion that took place at the conference. It is important that the member for Corangamite reminds farmers in his electorate to talk to their financial institutions when problems begin to grow, so that they can try and nip them in the bud, find mechanisms to address them and help manage the farmers through those problems.