Drought Assistance

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:43): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier consider his government's response to the drought has been sufficient? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Drought-stricken farmers have told the opposition that they have waited up to three months to learn if they have been successful in receiving a $5,000 rebate. Meanwhile, farmers have been scrambling for feed, have been forced to de-stock and are losing significant amounts of their crops. Farmers and community leaders, including Elden Osten and Mark Schilling, have supported dozens of their farming neighbours to complete online drought application forms, and all have been advised of a minimum 10-week wait.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:44): We always want to do as much as we can, and I think that's true for anyone in elected office. In fact, on a sort of unrelated subject, only earlier this morning when I was in the car I was on the phone to some senior public servants trying to make sure that we are getting dollars out the door as quickly as we can in some of the processes regarding Whyalla, which you were referring to earlier.

Wherever taxpayers' money is being handed out in the form of cash or grants or assistance, there is always a process that has to be gone through. It is necessary and important that when we hand out taxpayers' money to other people in the community, regardless of their circumstances, that there is a bit of rigour around that, but there is always an opportunity to expedite it, make it more efficient and faster where we can.

I think anybody who has sat on the Treasury benches on these types of matters is always trying to make sure we are doing more and faster. Ten weeks may be able to be improved upon and I am more than happy to take that question and get on the phone and see if we can't apply a bit of pressure in the same way that I did on a similar subject this morning because that is the function of leadership for those who find themselves on the Treasury benches and are more than happy to undertake to do that.

But, of course, as reasonable people would appreciate, there is always a process when it comes to handing out cash or grants and that is always going to be true. It's about making sure that we are doing everything we reasonably can to make it as quick as possible.