Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank Senator Ruston for her question, particularly given her background in horticulture. I know that she appreciates the magnitude of the problem that Australian farmers are facing. The coalition of course understands the plight of drought affected farmers, and the package that was announced by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Agriculture is directed at addressing that.

Assisting in the most effective delivery of the package, the Department of Human Services has two mobile service centres, the Kangaroo Paw and the Desert Pea, which are visiting communities in northern New South Wales and Queensland over the next few weeks to help farmers test their eligibility for the Interim Farm Household Allowance.

In fact, on Tuesday morning I went to Uralla, in the New England district, to visit the mobile service centre called the Desert Pea. The staff who are on board those centres have extensive experience in rural servicing. They really understand the needs of people living in rural and regional communities. I particularly want to commend those staff, who, following the announcement of the drought package, have diverted from their previous program. I want to thank them for the kilometres and kilometres they do in the trucks. I thank the social workers for the work that they do, which is incredibly important in times of crisis like this. The customer service officers and the regional financial counsellors also play a very important role. The people they are helping are in serious crisis and some of them are in great distress.

I met a fifth-generation farmer and his wife. The farmer's father still lives on their property. He is now over 80 years of age. His father says that he has never seen things this bad before. We now have something that looks a bit like a green drought. But it is completely misleading. The rains are really a bit of a mirage. The farmers are still buying feed. The dams are still completely depleted and it will take a lot more positive weather before we can say that we have made real progress in the drought. The package itself is most certainly directed at assisting those most in need. (Time expired)