Drought Assistance

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart) (14:33): I have a supplementary for the Premier. With your round table tomorrow, Premier, could you also consider discussing the opportunities for the impact of the rural community retail sector and things like that?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:34): That is an issue because lots of regional communities will have a main street in their local town and the main street is being impacted by the downturn and revenue coming through that is otherwise from the agricultural primary production sectors. That is having an impact. Trying to address that is more difficult. Delivering hay, government supporting investment in drought-resilient infrastructure: we are particularly attracted to those types of options, particularly the infrastructure piece, because we have to confront the fact that this isn't really the last time we will see this challenge. We know that.

I think it's crazy that even now I have a moment of pause in talking about climate change, as though it's a question. Climate change is happening, and that is not trying to insert a political debate into this. In fact, many long-term primary production producers—people who have had this in their families for a long time, and there are a lot of good producers where this is the case—can talk to the nature of climate change better than others.

The member for MacKillop would probably be able to account for the fact better than anyone in this place, although I know there are others, and talk to the fact that now in the South-East we are seeing conditions that we have never, ever seen before. The South-East talking about a drought is just a mind-boggling proposition. Lots of places have had droughts before, but the one in—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey can leave until the end of question time.

The honourable member for Chaffey having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Of course, as the member for Chaffey says, there have been droughts before, but this one is unlike anything we have recorded before, and the record speaks for itself. This isn't the first time, and we certainly know it's not going to be the last. That is why, when we talk about investment from the government, we are looking for opportunities that go beyond just immediate relief and that also try to improve resilience into the future. We are, like I said, in the process of trying to calibrate that effort, and we look forward to announcing it, hopefully in the not too distant future.