Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House how the government is helping regional communities, including irrigation communities, who are struggling with the drought, especially in my electorate of the Riverina? What is the government doing to help small businesses who are also affected by this drought?

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

I thank the member for Riverina for her question. I know how deeply she feels for her constituents who are suffering from arguably the worst drought that Australia has ever had. We are now aware that over 50 per cent of Australia’s agricultural land has been declared in drought exceptional circumstances and, therefore, the people who live in those areas are eligible for assistance from the Commonwealth government.

Importantly, we have not welshed on our responsibility to support farmers in need during this drought. Almost 95 per cent of the support given to the rural communities in those areas is coming from the federal coalition government. That spending could be up towards $7-odd million per week to assist those families to keep food on the table and with basic household support, and, just as importantly, with interest rate subsidies to ensure that their farming businesses get through the devastation of drought so that they are there to produce for the economy in the future. These are the two key elements that are part of our drought exceptional circumstances support and the package we announced early in the piece to give confidence to the rural sector.

Also, last month the government announced that it would extend exceptional circumstances support to small businesses in drought affected communities which derive over 70 per cent of their income from the agricultural community. That is relief for an estimated 5,000 businesses, which range from contract harvesters to feed producers and fertiliser suppliers. We have extended that support to the business community to ensure that the economic and social fabric in those rural communities, such as in the Riverina, are held together during this drought.

I mentioned that our government is providing about 95 per cent of the support going to rural communities during this drought. We should not let the state Labor governments off the hook in their responsibilities to assist their communities. Whilst the state governments across Australia continue to shift costs, we will continue to shift the blame onto them so that people will know about the responsibilities they are abrogating. We know what has been going on in New South Wales: it was made very public at the time of our announcement of our measures to support drought-stricken farmers that some of the assistance we were providing through interest rate support the New South Wales government were trying to claw back in water charges to irrigators in New South Wales, who were not receiving any of the water. The New South Wales government should hang their heads in shame for that, and they should do more to support the farming community in New South Wales.

We know what the Victorian government did during the 2002-03 drought, when they promised measures in the lead-up to the election in 2002: straight after the election, when they had been re-elected, they withdrew those measures. So we are watching the Bracks government very closely as to what they are doing about their announced measures and commitments to farmers suffering from drought in regional Victoria. Let there be no mistake about this: the public in Australia need to know that the state Labor governments are not currently doing their bit to help out the rural communities of Australia.

We are a wealthy nation that has prospered because of the good economic management from the federal coalition government. That has given us the ability to continue to support our regional communities in the way that we have. We are not going to stand by and let the state Labor governments not do their bit in their areas of responsibility or, in terms of the New South Wales government, try to claw back some of the financial assistance that we are providing to farmers in their hour of need.