John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the Deputy Prime Minister advise the House of measures taken by the coalition government to assist Australia’s farmers during the worst drought on record?

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

I thank the member for Mallee for his question and recognise his great concern and interest in the issue of how we as a government—and therefore the nation—assist the many farming families that are still suffering from arguably the worst drought in Australia’s history. Last year, the government made a number of decisions and announcements about drought assistance, following visits that the Prime Minister and I and other ministers made to drought affected parts of Australia and following how those families in those regions were dealing with the severe circumstances of drought. Over the last couple of months we have seen some rain in Australia, mostly in the north. That has been welcome. But we should remember that there are still significant parts of agricultural Australia that are absolutely being devastated by drought.

Since last year and the announcements that we made, there is about $2.1 billion worth of support available for Australia’s farmers and small business people in drought affected areas, including in the seat of Mallee in Victoria. It is very important to note that the government responded very quickly and provided a great deal of certainty and confidence to the farming community with regard to our support and our assistance. So it came as a surprise to me to read an article in the Weekly Times on 25 January where Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Senator O’Brien, was accusing the coalition of failing to help farmers affected by drought. How on earth could he conjure up that notion after the very generous measures that we have taken to assist the farming families across Australia—and more areas have been included in the drought exceptional circumstances areas announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry during January? I just do not know where Senator O’Brien is living. Maybe he should have gone on the trip out to the drought stricken areas near Canberra yesterday with the Leader of the Opposition and spoken to Mr Cameron about drought and other matters.

Mr Cameron certainly belled the cat on the issue when he said to the Leader of the Opposition, ‘I’m inclined to think certainly natural weather patterns have a lot to do with it’—‘it’ being drought. If you have a look at the weather patterns over the decades in Australia, you will see that it is cyclical. It is very important that governments in Australia support their rural communities in times of drought, and we are doing that. According to the latest figures from the drought task force, following the announcements that we made in those support measures last year, the number of farmers accessing EC has jumped by almost 43 per cent. The member for Mallee would appreciate that in Victoria the number of farmers and small business operators accessing EC income support has jumped by 72 per cent. In New South Wales and Western Australia, the number has increased by 37 per cent, and in Queensland it has increased by 15 per cent. That is about the breadth of the support that we are giving and the accessibility of the support we are giving to Australia’s farming families. We take the advent of drought very seriously. We recognise the cyclical nature of drought. Can I make a genuine suggestion to the Leader of the Opposition that, next time he goes to talk to drought stricken farmers, he takes his spokesman on agriculture with him.