Drought Assistance

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:31): Supplementary: has the minister received any feedback from farmers or farming communities about the difficulty for them in finding the funds available to provide 25 per cent of the drought infrastructure grant program that was announced yesterday?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:31): Usually these sorts of grant programs require a 50 per cent co-contribution. It was actually in the discussions that I have had leading up to this package where it was pointed out that 50 per cent may be quite problematic for some producers and lead to an undersubscription for that grant fund. As a result of that input we made it only a 25 per cent co-contribution.