Drought Assistance

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:01): My question is to the Treasurer. Will the government review its criteria for the drought assistance package to ensure that assistance is delivered where it is needed? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: The opposition understands that only around 800 of the over 9,000 South Australian agribusiness households qualify for the SA government's ESL and vehicle registration rebates.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (15:01): I thank the member for Flinders for his question. He is clearly motivated by the conditions that many in his electorate are experiencing with the record dry conditions and the impacts that is having on farmers and also local communities.

I don't know of those numbers that he has claimed and whether they are accurate or not. What I do know is that we have mirrored the longstanding federal criteria in the additional assistance that we are providing to primary producers. Not only will they have access to a range of different supports but, for those farmers who qualify for the direct financial assistance from the commonwealth government, we have also said that we will forego a range of state government fees and charges, including some of the ones that the member mentioned.

These are long-established criteria. They have been applied across the country, as far as I am aware, and they have been applied by federal governments of both political persuasions. But having said that, this is just the criterion for the exemption from these particular state government fees and charges. There is a whole other range of financial and other supports available to primary producers which are not subject to those particular criteria, as well as the financial support for other businesses—in particular small businesses—located in regional communities which may not be themselves primary producers but have suffered a downturn as a result of the difficulties that primary producers have been in.

I don't think anyone could reasonably accuse this government of not meeting the call for providing really substantial financial assistance to regional communities when required: firstly, with the flood event that we had down the River Murray, partnering with the commonwealth government in a $190 million package which included some subsequent infrastructure upgrades, and now we have seen two separate drought support packages totalling over $70 million.

We provided those funds, firstly, from November last year in advance of political calls for support because we realised the difficulties that were happening, and the Premier made it really clear that we were open to providing more support as and when it became necessary. We haven't waited until I release the budget on 5 June, but we have instead brought that forward to make sure we can provide these supports.

I am happy to try to see if the Department of State Development—the department that is responsible for actually issuing these financial supports, as well as the transport department and Treasury—can verify those numbers that have been quoted by the member. We have, across these two significant events affecting regional communities, taken decisions to provide more than a quarter of a billion dollars of financial support to affected communities. That is far above and beyond the level of support that has ever been provided to regional communities by a state government for these sorts of events in the past, and that is even before we talk about what the Premier was referring to earlier with support for Whyalla. I am happy to keep the house updated.