Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I stand by what I said. I said I have not received the letter and my advice is that Minister Burke has not received it, either. If they have sent it to Senator Macdonald to deliver it to us, that is probably why it will never arrive. It will get stuck in his office.

Let me say that the Gillard government has provided significant support for regional Australia. In addition to that, to deal with some of the head winds, we put together a farm finance package. So, if Senator Macdonald does want to provide assistance and does want to put his shoulder to the wheel to help some of those producers do some of that work—quite frankly I doubt that is his real intent in any event—he can encourage Minister McVeigh and the Campbell Newman government to sign up to farm finance. That will— (Time expired)