David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for her question and acknowledge that this year Australia has faced up to some of the harshest challenges it has ever faced. As a nation, we have come together and worked together. In fact, it's not just our politicians and it's not just our civic leaders; it's been ordinary Australians doing extraordinary things, whether it be bushfires or drought. We have seen ordinary Australians stand up. The perfect example of that is a young lady by the name of Grace Brennan who has the quintessential bush story. A city girl goes to visit a friend in the bush, meets a young bloke, falls in love and moves to the bush in the middle of the worst drought in our nation's history. She sees the pain and heartache that her township of Warren is going through and goes on to create the Buy From The Bush campaign, connecting bush businesses with city customers. Within seven weeks she has 130,000 Instagram followers and has increased rural postage by 30 per cent. Within seven months she got $5 million worth of revenue put into regional communities, and 20 per cent of those businesses employ a new person. Forty per cent of those businesses then go on to trade and sell their wares interstate, and 19 per cent internationally. Ninety-six per cent of those businesses are in fact owned by women.

This is a great idea from a lady who didn't recoil, didn't retreat and didn't go back to the city but stayed and helped her fellow Australians through some of the worst times that rural and regional Australians have had. This is something that an ordinary Australian who stood up with her fellow Australians, shoulder to shoulder, did in making sure that she created opportunities for her fellow people in Warren.

One of the businesses that signed up said,' Buy From The Bush not only helped us financially but it helped tell the real story of the drought. We're not Aussie battlers or starving sheep that need charity; we are doers who need some patronage from our city cousins, and that's exactly what we got through Buy From The Bush. This is what I wrote on the day after being featured in October 2019: "Yesterday I processed 66 online sales. Normally, I wouldn't make 66 online sales in a year. I sold $2,000 worth of greeting cards in a day and, although I'm exhausted, I'm over the moon. This morning I spent $160 at the post office. I bought myself breakfast at the cafe because I was feeling so rich and, with the orders still rolling in, I've decided to hire the local painter to paint my spare room, a job I've been wanting to do for ages. And I'm going to take the local window-covering business up on their quote to build my new house."'

This is not just a story of survival, this is a story of thriving in regional and rural Australia. And to ordinary Australians, like Grace Brennan, who stand with their fellow Australians in their time of need, our nation says thank you.