Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Hunter has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The question now is that the amendment be agreed to.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I said in my address to the House on the Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2018 last night, there is not a local government area in the Calare electorate that is not being affected by drought, from Lithgow to Blayney and through to the Wellington area. There is immense stress and immense pain amongst the farming communities. That's why I was so pleased to see the extension of the farm household allowance, because it delivers real help on the ground, where people need it.

I was also pleased to see that the Regional Investment Corporation is moving ahead. Last week we had board members, including the chair and acting CEO, visit Orange to help launch the Regional Investment Corporation and to source office premises in Orange. This is important because one of the key functions of the Regional Investment Corporation is to deliver concessional loans for drought-affected farmers. It's a really important facility for country Australia. It's also going to deliver $2 billion in water infrastructure finance and loans. It is basically an organisation with $4 billion in its loan books, but it exists to help country communities, to assist farmers when they need it most and to build stronger country communities.

It has, therefore, been very surprising to experience the negative attitudes from the member for Hunter over the development of the Regional Investment Corporation, because folks out in country Australia get decentralisation and its importance. We've had some big hits on our local areas right across the central west in terms of jobs in recent years, including the closure of Electrolux, Australia's last fridge manufacturing plant, which took more 550 jobs. So people are dumbfounded, I think, in country areas when you have politicians coming out and saying we shouldn't have decentralisation. In fact, out in our neck of the woods, the member for Hunter is known as the shadow minister for recentralisation. He comes out and says that the Regional Investment Corporation will be torn apart if the opposition get in. It's going to be very interesting to see how the opposition campaigns on taking jobs away from the central west during the next election. I'm going to watch that development with great interest because that's essentially what they're saying.

It totally ignores the fact that the whole reason the Regional Investment Corporation exists is to help farmers through concessional loans. To date, there have been $834 million in concessional loans approved. This is making a real difference on the ground to farmers. That's why the RIC, as it's known to its many friends, is so important to keep that work going and to expand that good work.

I give immense credit to the member for New England for his work in putting the RIC together, and also to the minister for agriculture, who has been very supportive of the RIC's development as well. It's part of a suite of drought-relief policies that the federal government has implemented, including the Farm Management Deposits Scheme, which allows eligible primary producers to set aside pre-tax income from primary production in years of high income which can be drawn on in future years. Under that scheme, they can deposit up to $800,000. They can access their FMD early without losing their claimed taxation concessions if they are affected by drought, and they can offset the interest costs on primary production business debt, subject to banks offering FMD loan offset accounts. So there are a suite of measures available at the moment, but I think it's really important that the Australian government looks at the situation on the ground and ramps up the response as the conditions worsen.

The Aussie farmer is one of the iconic images of our nation. Farmers have been a powerhouse of economic growth in recent years, but we can't take them for granted. Australian farmers are resilient, but I think there's also a feeling that Aussie farmers will always be there. Well, that's not necessarily the case. They're humans and they are suffering immense stress at the moment—about how they're going to feed their stock, where their stock are going to go, what's going to happen to their farms, how they're going to get fodder in, whether they're going to have any breeding stock left and whether they're going to be able to rebuild their paddocks. As I said, some paddocks in the central west at the moment resemble moonscapes. How are they going to be able to rebuild the dams? How are they going to rebuild the genetics in their herds? All of these issues are causing immense strain and stress and are taking a toll. It has to be said: it's taking an immense toll.

They need our help, and we as a nation need to answer that call. This bill does answer that call, but the conditions are so bad and the outlook is so grim that more will be needed. Unless some decent rains come soon, more help is going to be needed. We are going to have to keep ramping up the support and the assistance as the conditions worsen. I urge all Australians, particularly those in cities, to support our farmers and to remember that our farmers are the ones who actually put food on the table for the nation. People in cities, I think, go into the supermarket and take for granted that that food just appears. But it doesn't just appear; that food comes from our Australian farmers in electorates across our nation. They are our fellow Australians and we can't take them for granted.

I commend this bill to the House. I congratulate the minister for agriculture on his work. I thank him for visiting the central west in recent times and hearing firsthand about how the drought is affecting farmers in our area. I also am very happy with the work that's been put into the Regional Investment Corporation. But, again, as the conditions worsen, the response has to be ramped up. Our Australian farmers have helped power our national economy in recent times. We have relied on them for our nation's wealth and prosperity, and now we as a nation need to be there for them. I commend this bill to the House.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to continue on with the comments from the member for Calare and just note how the economics of our nation work. Mr Speaker, I look across the chamber and see that you're a strikingly good-looking man. I was looking at the tie that you got on there, and I bet you that tie is not made in Australia. Neither is your suit. Neither is your shirt. I don't know about your shoes—probably not. The car you drove—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They're RM Williams.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

RM Williams—owned by a French company but made in Australia, no doubt about that. I bet the car you drive, Mr Speaker, is from overseas. Certainly the fuel inside it is from overseas . I imagine you've got a phone in your pocket there.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You haven't? Well, if you did, it wouldn't have been made in Australia. There are two screens in front of you. Neither of them are from Australia. If I went into your house, Mr Speaker, I bet you cook on a Bosch stove because you like that German style of engineering. And no doubt the television you watch would probably be a Samsung—no, you'd be above a Samsung. You'd have a Japanese television, I imagine—something pretty flash!

Everything in your life, Mr Speaker, has basically come in on a boat from overseas. And the only reason it comes in on a boat from overseas is that somebody somewhere must be sending something in the other direction. And guess who those people are. It's all those terrible live cattle producers, terrible beef producers, shocking live sheep producers, all those wool producers and those terrible people in the irrigation industry. All are earning export dollars for our nation. What about those terrible miners, terrible coalminers out there earning a dollar for our nation? All are earning export dollars so we can have the expectation of the standard of living which is so present and so manifest in everything we do at the moment and in how we live.

We have to support these people. It's not just a form of charity. We've got to support these people to support ourselves. We have to support people through drought because they live with the vagaries of the climate. They live with the vagaries of the climate in such a form that they make money if it rains. If the season goes with them, if luck goes with them, they can make the export dollars to support our standard of living. When a drought happens, it quite obviously is a disaster not only for them but for the whole economy. The agricultural economy was the fastest-growing sector in recent times in our nation. I'm happy with the work this government has done, now and when I was the minister, to make sure that came about.

We are always going to have to manage droughts, but to manage droughts we must make sure that there is dignity maintained in the household so that, if hard times come, they can pay their chemist bill, they can pay their grocery bill and they can pay for their fuel. That is why we needed the farm household allowance. When we started, when we came to government, 367 people had got it off Labor. Now it's getting close to 8,000 people because we changed the criteria so that we could keep that dignity in the house, keep that dignity at the kitchen table. The lady of the house or the fellow or lady if they are by themselves know that there is at least some money coming in so they could pay some of those bills. Otherwise, they had nothing. It is not like they had social security in the cities if they lost their job; these people had nothing. They literally had to go without all. That is not respecting the dignity of the people on the land.

Now, with this further extension, I want to commend the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. The extension for a further year means we've got four years. This is vitally important because a lot of people are coming to the end of the three-year period and were going to run out. They were going to be left in an invidious position, because they would have nothing. On top of that, we're heading towards a billion dollars worth of concessional loans. I think it's about $850 million worth of concessional loans. I might remind the House that, when we came to government, the Labor Party had knocked eight concessional loans out the door.

We're making sure we maintain that. We set up the Regional Investment Corporation so we would have an ongoing institution to properly manage this and to have a capacity to increase its mandate to look after the people on the land because they're looking after us. Just like the coalminers, the bauxite miners and the iron ore miners, so are the sorghum producers, the wheat producers, the beef producers, the sheep producers and the wool producers—they are looking after us, so we must look after them.

It's disappointing every time I listen to the Labor Party—they're supposed to have a strong social conscience, which is one of the vestiges of the Labor Party—because all they talk about is tearing these things down. They're going to dismantle the Regional Investment Corporation. I've never heard what they're going to put in its place—not once. They want to move APVMA from Armidale back down to Canberra. Why? Because they don't believe in decentralisation. They don't have a vision for regional Australia. They have no money on the table for the inland rail. They have none. We listened to their story. There is no money on the table for inland rail from the Labor Party. They have no vision for a greater regional Australia—none. We believe that we have to stand behind the dignity of these people and to drive their economies forward.

What we've expended on the Farm Household Allowance so far is approaching a quarter of a billion dollars—$230 million. I commended the New South Wales state government the other day for their $50,000 seven-year interest-free loan. I had a look at some of the conditions on it. I think it's going to be a tough one to get your hands on.

I say once more that when the state asks, 'What have we done?' We've got close to a quarter of a billion dollars now that we've paid out in the Farm Household Allowance. The New South Wales government has to put their hand in their pockets for freight subsidies. They must do that. That's their role. That's their job. I commend them for what they announced the other day with the Malpas pipeline at Armidale. It's about $12½ million. Good luck to them. Well done. We were fighting for it as well, but you've paid for it. Well done. It is very important during the drought to get pipelines in.

But most important now, during this drought what people are asking for, what farmers are asking for, are freight subsidies for fodder, for the movement of cattle, for the movement of sheep and for the movement of water. I had to bring in fodder myself the other day—I've got a couple of blocks—and it came from Gatton in Queensland. It cost thousands and thousands of dollars to move fodder. You've just got to do it. Buying cotton seed is important, as is trying to keep the basis of the herd together. God willing, a few showers are going over at the moment, but even if they go over and even if it rains it's the middle of winter, so you're not going to get a lot of fodder growth out of that. You'll start to get some subsoil moisture. Around about August you'll start to get some growth. Then, of course, you've got to wait for the place to pasture back up again so that you can start improving conditions for cattle.

If you sell your cows now you're going to get nothing for them. No-one wants old cows in drought as that's not how you make money. You've got to be able to get your hands on the money to support those stock, to support your herd, to get to the other end of the drought, so you can get a cash flow up and running again.

This is all part and parcel of what a caring government does. What we need is as we have articulated—a clear vision on this side of the House with 100 per cent write-off on water reticulation and 100 per cent write-off on fencing, and write-off over three years for fodder storage for your silos and for your hay sheds.

We took farm management deposits from $400,000 to $800,000. I was trying for a million. I got $800,000. We passed the legislation that you could have a write-off against the money you owe the bank. If you owe the bank $1 million and you have $800,000 in farm management deposits, the bank should just charge you interest on the $200,000 difference. We've done that.

There is a banking royal commission on at the moment and the banks are saying they're doing a fair job and there's nothing to see here. They've got a few problems but they're trying to defend their position. But I'll put something to you: the banks should immediately, all of them—not just the rural banks—should now be processing the capacity, so that if you have a farm management deposit and you have money owed to the bank, these things can be netted out and you only pay the interest bill on the difference. That's what's supposed to happen. I'll tell you what they're doing. It can work like this: the bank says, 'Okay, you've got $800,000 in farm management deposits to help you through a drought. We'll give you three per cent on that. Then we're going to lend you the money you need, the million dollars you need, at seven per cent or eight per cent with an overdraft, so you'll probably have a four per cent differential.' A four per cent differential on $800,000—four eights are 32—means they're touching for $32,000 a year. I don't know whether anybody said anything up at the royal commission about that, but they should. This is something that should be happening right now to show their support during the drought.

What we've clearly showed is we support people during the drought not because it's charity but because it's an economic necessity. It's an economic necessity that we continue to maintain our export dollars if we want to maintain our standard of living that is so apparent in everything we do in our lives. The people in towns are usually pretty good. It is the people in the cities who have to understand. They have to look into their lives and say, 'How much of my life was actually produced in this nation? My shoes, my shirt, my socks, my car, my phone—most of it's produced overseas.' We have to support the people who put things on the boat and send it in the other direction. That is one of the reasons why we have to support people through drought: they are one of the key people who do it.

The other thing is if you allow the collapse of farming families during a drought—because they're the people most likely to be hurt—then you'll slowly, piece by piece, get a greater progression of the corporatisation of the Australian landscape. I don't want that. I want to make sure that we have Australian mums and dads as the predominant owners of the Australian asset, just like how we have Australian mums and dads as the predominant owner of the house in the suburb. As I've said before, I don't know what economic theorem it complies with—probably none—but what it does comply with is our sense of patriotism and national purpose. For that to happen, we must support them when things are tough. We must support them at times of drought.

People on the land do not live with a widget factory. They do not have a predictable income stream. They live on one of the most vague income streams you can imagine. People on the land are so often driven to this not so much by economic principles but by an almost religious passion to be on the land, to earn their living from the land. We show our compassion to them at this point in time because, if you look deeply into exactly what they do, they do this: they live in one of the noblest of pursuits. Their job is to feed and clothe people. They don't exploit them through their weaknesses. They don't exploit them through addictions. They don't conjure up ways to swindle money out of people's pockets with things they don't need. They deliver back to humanity food and clothes. People who make it their lifetime pursuit to feed and clothe people are people who are the most deserving of our support in times of drought.

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I firstly acknowledge the member for New England, my predecessor as the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. In fact, a lot of the environment that we've put around the agriculture sector with respect to drought policy comes from his leadership. The Agricultural competitiveness white paper also built that resilience and environment around our agriculture sector. It was ahead of its time. This parliament and this nation owe a lot of gratitude to member for New England.

This government, since coming into power, has invested over a billion dollars around drought assistance not only for farmers but also for small communities. It's not just the farmers that hurt during drought; it's the small businesses that support those farmers, those small communities. It's important that we acknowledge that and ensure that our policy settings not only support the resilience of our farming sector but also go to supporting those small regional communities. We've done that through a number of ways.

One is that we're about to pass some legislation to extend the farm household allowance to give dignity to those farmers who are doing it tough so that they will be able to put bread and butter on the table and put fuel in the car to take the kids to sport on the weekend. But we've also been able to ensure we have a concessional loan piece that now we'll be able to put through the Regional Investment Corporation. There is also the Drought Communities Program, which is putting $35 million into small regional communities to allow them to build projects that'll use local contractors. In any electorate of Maranoa I can assure you there are little communities like Quilpie and Cunnamulla that have been able to do new projects, such as for their racecourse, using local contractors and keeping them busy. The farm household allowance, that $538.80 a fortnight, also goes into the local supermarket, keeping employment in those communities alive and well during the tough times.

We have also made sure that we have made an investment in controlling pests and weeds. In my own electorate in Queensland, we've put $13 million into wild-dog fencing. It has lifted the lambing rates from around seven per cent to 85 per cent. What that does is build resilience so that, when it does rain, our primary producers are able to take advantage of the commodity prices that are there because of the trade agreements we put in place. It also allows them to recover. We have also seen the environmental benefits of this dog fencing. We're seeing a large increase in small marsupials, brolgas and even koalas coming back because of the investment that we have made in partnership with the primary producer to ensure that we build resilience to get them through the drought and prepare them for the next drought but ensure that they take advantage of the great commodity prices that we've put in place. Our drought investment in regional communities and in farmers is not just about keeping them alive and going through a drought. It's going beyond that. It's looking towards building that resilience so that when it does rain they can take advantage and when they go through the next drought they're not as reliant on the Commonwealth. That is an important piece that we've put together. It's a strategic piece. The member for New England was at the fore of that and needs to be acknowledged for all his work on that.

There were some comments made in the speech by the member for Hunter when moving his amendments around particularly the intergovernmental agreement on drought with the states. Sadly, again, he was trying to score cheap political points without understanding the facts. It will not end on 1 July. In fact, AGMIN agreed that it will continue on. It will be finalised by September. But instead of mentioning that, the member for Hunter made a cheap political point, politicalising drought and hardship. It would be good if the member for Hunter got out of Newcastle and came and sat, as the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and I have done, at farmers' kitchen tables. He hasn't sat at a farmer's kitchen table in the last 12 months—I would put money on that—to listen to the reality and listen to the stories to be able to understand the policy settings that we are putting in place. That's what we as a government do. That's what the Prime Minister did.

I challenge the Leader of the Opposition. Not one brass razoo did he commit to agriculture in his budget reply speech.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Did he mention it?

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Only in passing did he mention it. He's made two significant national addresses. One was to the National Press Club. Not once did he use the word 'agriculture'. The Leader of the Opposition didn't even utter the word 'agriculture'. He wouldn't use the 'a' word. In passing, he talked about it, but he didn't commit even one extra dollar under an alternative government to agriculture. That's an indictment of those opposite. They don't understand agriculture and they don't care about agriculture.

We are making sure that we are making those strategic investments. Those opposite come in here and talk about the Regional Investment Corporation and say it doesn't have a CEO and hasn't been set up. Well, the only reason the Regional Investment Corporation didn't come into effect was because of the sabotage of the Labor Party in not allowing it to get through the Senate. I blew their world away with my first parliamentary win in my first parliamentary week as the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. I was able to convince—

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, talk yourself up!

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, it rocked your world. I was able to get the crossbenchers to change their minds and allow the Regional Investment Corporation to get through. That had Senator Wong and the member for Hunter scrambling all over the place, wondering who on the crossbench had changed their mind. We got it through. It's ready to start giving concessional loans. It's ready to roll on 1 July. Again we see the politicisation of trying to stop a piece of infrastructure—an investment in drought concessional loans. They're politicising drought and the hardship of these people. We are better than that. The member for Hunter is better than that—he is. He genuinely gets it. Unfortunately, he's decided to score cheap political points rather than come on the journey of trying to make a difference in those people's lives. In regional and rural Australia they're doing it tough at the moment. There's a way forward, and this parliament can find that. I know the member for Hunter can do that. The reality is that we are putting that framework in place.

The piece that I'm most excited about with what we are doing for farm household assistance is that we're not just handing out money every fortnight; we're allocating a case worker to each one of these people. So it's not just a handout—they'll sit down with them. We've invested an extra $20 million in rural financial counsellors: that's going to secure their services to 2020, and around $3½ million of that will go to increased services for demand. So we'll have someone that's going to sit around the kitchen table with people, get under the bonnet of their business and have the tough conversations. We've got to be honest. Some people are going to have to make some tough decisions about what their future is, but that needs to be done in a calm and decisive way. They need time, and by extending the farm household assistance by a year, we give them that time and we let them have those conversations with dignity and respect. They'll have those conversations with the experts. They'll sit down and have the conversation about whether they should continue or not. This is about making sure the right decisions are made with the right mindset.

While we were out in western Queensland and western New South Wales, we also made an additional commitment of $2 million towards online psychological services. People in drought-affected areas are fatigued and hurting, particularly in parts of my electorate that have been drought-affected for up to seven years. They need some help and they need the help in an emotional sense. Being able to reach out, and having the ability to do it from the privacy of their own home, is important to them. It's important that we all agree—I know those opposite join me—that the stigma of mental health should never be such that someone would never ask for help. We live in a great country. This investment is about allowing people to reach out. I ask everybody, whether you're okay or not, to reach out to someone near you and ask whether they are okay. I have seen firsthand the emotional torment that some people are going through after seven years without an income—seven years without seeing what their blood, sweat and toil could become. It's heartbreaking.

It's important that we make those investments, not only in a financial sense but in an emotional sense. That's why what this government has done with respect to farm household assistance and other drought assistance packages is to make sure it's a whole measure—around emotional and financial support, and making sure we're investing in the resilience of regional and rural Australia and of our farmers. I'm proud to say that the farm household assistance will give our farmers that dignity, and the opportunity to reflect and to be able to work through the issues they need to work through to ensure they can make the right decisions for themselves, their families and their communities. I commend the bill to the House.

Question negatived.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.