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

Senator Davey, it's obviously a matter for each of those services to decide what they want to say to their clients, but one thing they might say is: 'Isn't it good we had a government that extending the funding beyond 31 December this year?' The situation that your government left them in was that the funding was going to cut out on 31 December this year.

You might have forgotten about it, but your government had a budget back in, I think, March or April this year and decided to not extend the funding. Now you want to come in here and ask why we haven't provided funding any more long term than you did. We've actually extended this funding beyond what your government had agreed to, to 31 March this year, because we do recognise that these people need some certainty.

Your government decided that is was going to cut out the funding right in the middle of the disaster season. That's how much you cared about those services. We've actually taken a different view, provided that certainty, and there is an ongoing program for rural financial counselling for farmers. There is no risk to that whatsoever. In the meantime, we are considering other options for financial counselling for businesses to go with the grants that have already been approved for small businesses. (Time expired)