Drought Assistance

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart) (14:28): My question is to the minister representing the Minister for Primary Industries. Can the government please advise my constituents, particularly those in areas north in my electorate of Stuart, is there any further assistance for those locations that continue to be impacted by the current drought? I am pretty emotional because of what I have been seeing, but I ask the leave of the house to explain further.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: The government some time ago was able to commit $18.1 million, late last year, after I wrote to the Premier in late 2024, and again in March this year. Alongside the other five members of the crossbench, we wrote to the Premier asking for some assistance. Some of the things I have seen in the regional areas with the drought and the loss of farmland and animals is very heartbreaking.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:29): I thank the member for his question. I am well aware that the member for Stuart has a great affinity with almost every area of his electorate, including with primary producers that I know do make up a significant proportion, particularly around livestock.

We are concerned about the destocking that is now being undertaken by many livestock producers around the state and it is a terrible challenge that they are confronting. It was obvious to us. I had a round table with primary producers in the South-East, specifically in Mount Gambier, who came from all over the South-East, in October last year, and that's what informed the assistance package that we announced in November. As I explicitly said during the ministerial statement, we are having another effort like that tomorrow afternoon and we will be announcing another package that I suspect will be announced a week or two after that.

The meeting that we are having tomorrow, I am really keen just to make sure we hear firsthand because we have been working on a package—and I have said this publicly. We have been working on a package, or a second iteration of the package over the last few weeks; in fact, the Treasurer and the Minister for Primary Industries and I have been talking about it really since January. We are now at a point where we've got the settings there. We just want to make sure the calibration of it is right, hence the round table tomorrow.

Certainly in terms of livestock, though, there is clearly an ability to make a bigger investment in the charity-led organisations that are doing the hay running. There are five organisations that have taken up the assistance that we made available in November last year and that's been taken up fully—I think it's reasonable to expect that we would be looking to increase that yet again, explicitly for those livestock producers who you are understandably concerned about—Rural Aid, Rapid Relief Team, Farmers Relief Agency, Aussie Hay Runners and others that we have given funding to. The minister is actively working with Aussie Hay Runners, in particular; they are a really thoughtful, powerful organisation that advocate for their cause I think adeptly and we are particularly alive to the fact that where there is hay available, we want to get it across the border.

The economics of it does necessitate government support. Often the cost of the diesel and the transportation, the value of transport and the cost of it, exceeds the value of the hay itself, which makes it a peculiar set of circumstances, and that's where it wouldn't stack up under any circumstances unless there was government support; it just wouldn't stack up. The circumstances are so grave that without hay that is worth less than the diesel, in effect, we will see greater destocking than otherwise might be the case.

All these things can make a difference. They will not solve the problem. Only a big rain over a sustained period is going to solve the problem, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do more and we are going to do more. We are now at the point where we just need to make sure the settings are right.

Your question speaks to the livestock industry, but it's really across the board now, particularly the gravity of the reduction in rainfall that we have seen. I think we are all crossing our fingers and toes that we get those rains sooner rather than later. Top of mind is ANZAC Day. We really want to see some rain before then. That's an important milestone. It is more or less late April and now we are into April. Our fingers are crossed, but we've got to make sure we respond in a way that is practical, rather than just throw money at something to look like we are doing something. We want it to be practical and that's what we are orientating our effort towards now.