Dairy Concessional Loans

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (15:42): I rise today to talk about dairy and drought loans. Unfortunately for South Australia, we have missed out again. I note a media release by the Hon. Barnaby Joyce of 12 October allocating an additional $20 million to the Victorian dairy recovery concessional loans, and the reason for this is that their loan scheme is basically fully subscribed.

Farmers are doing it tough, particularly in the dairy industry. The Victorian government—and I hate to say this, as it is a Labor government over there—has actually worked with farmers to assist them in applying for this federal government loan. How does this compare to South Australia? As people know, Mount Gambier is very close to the border, and I have a number of dairy farmers in the same situation.

The reports that I am getting back indicate that only two funding applications have been approved, with one under consideration, so either something is going on in South Australia that is very, very good, because these farmers do not need to apply for these dairy concessional loans, or there is something at work that is going horribly wrong. Upon further investigation, I am shocked to find that the major difference is that Victoria allows farmers to count water as an asset, yet in South Australia that does not apply.

This is federal money with federal guidelines, yet we have a South Australian government making it as difficult as possible for farmers to access the equity or assets they own so that they can get their debt to equity ratios right. Many farmers I have spoken to have simply said that it is too bureaucratic. They have been knocked back because they cannot satisfy the equity ratios.

This is absolutely disgraceful. I have now called on the federal government to direct fund these loans. In any future loans, the South Australian government obviously cannot be trusted to be supporting farmers, particularly dairy farmers, and the federal government could do us a big favour by cutting them out of the loop and direct funding. In fact, many farmers I have spoken to say the easiest solution is to work with the federal government to a bank and have an interest rate subsidy.

One farmer, whose wife is quite numerate and articulate and does all the bookwork, has taken three weeks solid to apply for one of these loans. Unfortunately, a lot of farmers have lost faith in this government and lost faith in the system and are not applying for the loans, which are, of course, federally funded.

Some people say, 'We have actually had one of the wettest winters in history. How can we still be looking for a drought assistance package?' The reality is very different from what people think. With no rain, there have been low crop yields and people are having to buy in silage or feed because the ground is now too wet. So, although things will turn around, there are a lot of farmers who are on their knees because the crops they have sown simply have not come out of the ground yet because it is so boggy and wet underfoot.

Farmers are struggling to meet the terms and conditions of the loans that they currently have and I know of a few who in the very near future are going to either be bankrupt or forced off their land. It is a crying shame that there is assistance available at a federal government level—we are not asking the state government for anything except for some decent management, or fair and equitable management—and they cannot even access loans which are not of the state government's making. I just shake my head in disappointment and anger that people are going to go under because of poor bureaucratic management, and it is not good enough.