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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-05-14 Daily Xml
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Drought Assistance

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:20): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that the value of South Australia’s primary industry and agribusiness is of significant value, an estimated $18.5 billion in 2022-23;

(b) recognises that the current drought is, for many districts, the worst in living memory and is causing significant financial and mental stress across rural and regional communities in South Australia;

(c) agrees that the Malinauskas Labor government's $8 million ‘new’ funding in response to this drought is grossly inadequate considering the magnitude of hardship and suffering currently being endured by the sector;

(d) urges the Malinauskas government to explore all possible measures to ensure water and fodder supply to farming communities that desperately need it around the state;

(e) calls on the Malinauskas Labor government to urgently provide meaningful assistance to South Australia’s farming sector to underpin its ongoing viability or the benefit of all South Australians; and

(f) recognises that failure to provide meaningful assistance immediately will result in terrible human and animal welfare outcomes.

I would just like to acknowledge the great work that our farmers and our rural communities do in producing this many billions of dollars of produce, so that they can get on and not just forge outcomes for themselves but forge great outcomes for this state.

Agriculture is one of the leading providers of income in this state and it needs support, when we have unprecedented drought conditions like we have at the moment. There is hardship in most areas of the state, although I do acknowledge there is a different sort of hardship in the Far North in areas where the floodwaters have come across from Queensland, at up to 1,000 gigalitres a day, but that is in the outback.

The main farming areas and grazing areas of the inside country have been terribly affected by the weather conditions that we have seen over more than 12 months. We had such a diminished rainfall year last year and it was just amazing to see what producers could produce on very limited rainfall in South Australia.

We had the Grain Producers SA grain awards, where a farmer who received an award from up towards Loxton said, 'Well, what do you do with 62 millimetres of rain?' At least people had a sense of humour and did give a slight laugh to that because they thought, 'What do you do with it?' If it were not for the updated technologies that people are using now with the one-pass farming, the spraying out of country, long before it is cropped, to brown it out—at great cost, I must say—to make sure that every drop of moisture is salvaged, people could not get the right outcomes to grow the maximum amount of crop that they can. But it is still subject to making sure that the farmers put themselves in the right position to make use of every drop of rain when it comes.

Last year was extremely tough where people saw terrible yields, but if it was not for the farming methods that have been introduced over the past 20 or so years, with better practices in saving soil moisture, the no-till or minimum-till farming techniques, we would not have had the outcomes we did. I say that because if the farming practices that were utilised even 30 years ago were used, we would have seen far more dust clouds than we did last year, if not for the conservation farming methods where you retain the stubble to grow those crops.

The drought has obviously heavily impacted on the income that farmers could receive, and it is a multimillion dollar business now. There are many farmers in business now and some are spending a million dollars just to put their crop in. Some have been sowing for a month with virtually no rain. I think we had three millimetres the other day at home, and there has been more, or less, in other areas, and some have had none. That is very minimal rain and people are essentially on a wing and a prayer.

The farmer who farms my property under a lease arrangement sowed the canola last Friday and had been sowing that on other farms. I am not sure if they have gone on this week with other crops but plenty of others have. They have put in some legumes, some canola and wheat crops. They are reinvesting, as I said, and some are spending $1 million to put in crops and are totally reliant on rainfall. They will be really putting it out there knowing that it is not just the first rain that comes in, but they will need rain ongoing.

It is not just for the people cropping, it is for the people trying to hang on to stock, people who have not had access to hay and fodder in an easy way because it either has not been available or it is too expensive. We have certainly needed those hay runs that people like Aussie Hay Runners and different Rotary clubs organised. I think there are about five or six different groups that have been supporting hay runs into South Australia, and I really salute the work that they have been doing to keep stock alive.

People have to make a really huge decision. I know some people have said, 'We are going to hang onto as many sheep or cattle as we can,' and they have put in maximum effort, extended overdraft and really gone hard on spending a lot of money so that they still have a cheque for that stock later on when they produce lambs or calves, or a wool cheque later on. If you sell everything off, there is nothing to come in the future for you to have any form of a viable income. In the meantime, they are spending a fortune—many tens of thousands and sometimes many hundreds of thousands—to buy feed for this stock.

As I indicated yesterday, I was on Kangaroo Island recently and I could not believe how bare it was over there. At the western end, near Flinders Chase, which is the so-called wetter end of the island, there was still nothing. Hundreds of thousands of sheep are grown over there, as well as tens of thousands of heads of cattle. They have to freight in hay and grain over the water at huge cost to operate. Certainly, there is a lack of access to water. There were not too many dams with any amount of water in them. If it was not for the desalination plant that the former Liberal government put in several years ago at Penneshaw, there would have been some far more significant problems there.

It is absolutely troubling to see this ongoing drought and to see that the season has not broken yet in this state. As I said, it is not just about the break in the season; we need action to move forward. We need the rain to continue through so that the feed can grow. As time moves on, not just the feed for stock but the crops as well, with the cold weather coming in, things take longer to grow, so it is a real catch 22 situation as time goes on.

I call on the government to put in more significant support. I note since I put this motion to the house about the $8 million of extra funding, where it was $18 million that was allocated, about $10 million of that was already funded through Rural Business Support programs. I really commend the work of Brett Smith and his team in looking after people who may need rural household support or may need that financial guidance moving forward.

The reality is only about 8 per cent of farmers are eligible for any of the money under the droughtproofing schemes. I note that money has been increased recently, but the problem has been that to get some of this money people have had their applications in for 10 or 12 weeks, and they are having to make a commitment with their own money. Next thing, one scheme gets usurped by the previous scheme, and it becomes a bureaucratic nightmare. There needs to be more staff allocated, because thousands of applications are going in, as I understand, to be approved. The government needs to make sure they have the staff in place to assist people so that they can get real outcomes moving forward.

We have called for low-interest loans and other measures so that people can get real relief moving forward. There needs to be more general relief that goes across the sector right across the board, because what is happening now is there is only a small percentage of people eligible for that relief, and that relief is taking so long to come. People are having to make huge decisions with their cropping programs. In fact, someone said to me the other day, 'If you were farming in your own right, would you still put a crop in?' I said, 'Absolutely. What a going to do, sit there and just not do anything?'

It is especially the case when a lot of farming machines these days, if you are at a scale where you are buying new plant, are around $1 million. It is close to $1 million for your main tractor pulling your air seeder. Air seeder combinations with seeder bins and air seeder bars are close $1 million. Spray units are close to $1 million. Headers are heading towards $2 million. It is a major capital spend so that people can do their cropping program and move on. It is not unlike the situation with stock. As I indicated, people are having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep their stock alive, or they are having to make that heartbreaking decision to sell a lot of stock off.

I do want to commend the work of Rural Business Support, who move people and give them the direction to get perhaps the mental health support they need. I note the many barbecues that have been held previously—and some are still being held—where people get together. I went to one where there must have been about 140 or 150 people in the Mallee at peak. It is just a reason for people to get together to acknowledge that they are not alone.

I think that is something that there needs to be more of, especially in these tough times, so that people do not feel alone. Sadly, sometimes people think they are the only ones, and they do not want to go out and talk to people. But everyone is in the same boat. If it does not rain, even though everyone's financial situation is slightly different, we all end up with that terrible outcome of the potential of people losing their land and losing the ability to grow food for the state and the nation and for export.

We produce billions of dollars of produce in this state. The state's agriculture sector is crying out for more support. We need the Malinauskas Labor government to be serious about the support going to our growers, because they are putting their livelihoods on the line. They are putting their lives on the line, literally. And they are putting many hundreds of millions of dollars on the line right now, dry seeding and purchasing hay and grain so that they can do their bit to feed this state and this nation and feed our export potential. I commend this motion and would be interested in the further speeches in the house.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (12:35): I rise to speak on this motion, but I also indicate that I seek to amend the motion as follows:

Delete paragraph (c) and replace it with:

(c) acknowledges that the Malinauskas government is providing targeted support to farmers and regional communities affected by drought through its $73 million drought support package announced on 8 April 2025;

Delete paragraph (d) and replace it with:

(d) recognises that the Malinauskas government engaged extensively with industry, regional communities and farmers to ensure that the measures covered in the drought support package were thoughtfully designed in direct consultation with those affected by the drought;

Delete paragraph (e) and replace it with:

(e) agrees that the Malinauskas government’s $73 million drought support package is comprehensive, effective and addresses an array of areas in need, including water and fodder accessibility, immediate financial assistance, mental health and wellbeing support, pest management and future drought preparedness and resilience.

Delete paragraph (f).

Certainly, the government supports the essence of the motion. What we have sought to do is to provide an update by amending the motion to reflect what is actually happening today and the response of the government to that drought situation.

The state government knows the importance of primary producers in South Australia. As well as providing food and fibre for the state, the nation and the world, primary producers also generated $18.5 billion of revenue in the last known year, 2022-23, with direct employment and associated processing of around 78,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

The state government is acutely aware that significant parts of South Australia are experiencing drought conditions, with most agricultural regions now experiencing lowest-on-record or severe rainfall deficiency since February 2024. The current estimated grain production for 2024-25 has been revised to 5.2 million tonnes, which is 43 per cent below the five-year average and the lowest total since 2008-09, which was 4.9 million tonnes. The farmgate value of grain in 2024-25 is estimated to be $2.1 billion, down from $3.3 billion last year.

The government acknowledges that primary producers and regional communities are experiencing extremely challenging times. However, Mr Pederick's motion fails to mention that the government has now invested $73 million in comprehensive drought support through the combined packages. The first tranche of drought support was announced on 26 November 2024, which comprised $18 million in a range of financial and community assistance measures, and the further $55 million announced on 8 April 2025 was developed following extensive engagement with primary producers, industry leaders, local government and regional committees affected by the drought.

As promised, after the first drought support was announced last year we continued to monitor conditions and levelled up our support when it became clear that the drought had not abated. I can attest to the consultation. I actually sat in on some of those meetings with a whole range of industry organisations and farmers themselves to make sure that the second package was appropriately targeted and met the needs.

I have more to say because, as the member for Hammond has quite rightly said, when the farmers are doing it tough the whole community does it tough in those areas, whether it is small business people or sporting organisations, etc. That is one reason why the second package had a broader range of measures to support the community as a whole, not just the farming people directly.

The additional $55 million comprises both extensions to the existing drought support measures and a range of new schemes. We are extremely pleased to have allocated a further $13 million to the $5 million On-Farm Drought Infrastructure Rebate program. The additional funding also means that we could open a second tier of grants, so now producers can apply for either up to $5,000 and provide a 25 per cent co-contribution or up to $20,000 with a 50 per cent co-contribution.

We have also extended our transport rebates for charities to deliver donated fodder to producers in need. Hay runs of donated fodder to farmers with government transport rebates have been running since January and have been providing much-needed relief to livestock producers.

The Connecting Communities Events Grant also has an additional $250,000 in funding allocated. This has been well received, with 36 approved events held across the state. Most recently, the Adelaide Plains FarmHers were able to put on an incredible rain event called 'Dancing in the Dirt' for women, which I think the member for Frome attended. That was funded through the state government program.

On top of the extensions to the measures under the original drought package, we have invested funds into new schemes, including a regional drought relief fund round of the Active Club Program, providing up to $5,000 for sports clubs in regional areas affected by drought. This is very important because when people are affected by drought, clubs often find it hard to find sponsorship and the people themselves find it hard to meet the costs of various things like equipment and the like for sporting groups.

This grant is non-competitive—in other words, if your group is eligible for the funding and meets the criteria, it actually gets the grant. It is not the case that some people miss out. If you meet the criteria, you receive the funding. We had an information session in Riverton just the other night. I am certain the sporting groups which attended that information session in Riverton found it very helpful, and also appreciated the fact that this grant round has less red tape around it and it will be much easier for people to apply and succeed.

Other new schemes include:

commercial vehicle registration and emergency services levy rebates;

bulk water collection from the Bundaleer Reservoir;

financial support for camps and excursions to support country students at public schools financially impacted by drought;

pest animal management schemes;

a grant program for regional councils to upgrade publicly accessible standpipes; and

rural support grants of up to $1,500 to support primary producers and rural small businesses in financial hardship.

Madam Acting Speaker, as you can see, the revised and upgraded Malinauskas government's $73 million drought support package is comprehensive, effective and addresses an array of areas and needs, including water and fodder accessibility, immediate financial assistance, mental health and wellbeing support, pest management, and future drought preparedness and resilience, with various programs designed to support people to put new water security measures and infrastructure on their farms.

The state government continues to work closely with industry to monitor conditions and take advice on the support measures. Having said all that, farmers are doing it tough and those communities are doing it very tough at the moment. There is not much rain in sight, which means that things could actually get worse. I am aware that the government is also already exploring what it may have to do in the near future, should those rains not come.

It is not only a case of the rains coming, because once the rains come there will also be a recovery period for many of the farmers. For example, the farmers who I have spoken to who had to reduce their stock levels will then need time to restock their farms to get to the sorts of levels they have had now. So even if the rains came tomorrow, there would be some time before farmers could actually start producing at the levels they were prior to the drought. The government is completely aware of that and is putting measures in place. As I said, it is also starting to explore and plan for what could be another round of assistance, should this drought not break.

I am mindful of those farmers I have spoken to in the Mid North area who have taken the risk and started to seed the ground in the hope that the rains do come—but if they do not come, as the member has rightly pointed out, they will lose that money and also various fertilisers and other things. One of the things I heard the other night at a meeting with some farmers was that there is some concern about some banking institutions not being prepared to support our farmers. I am not sure how widespread that is, but certainly if that is the case I think it is something we need to address to make sure we provide support to get farmers across this really bad patch.

As I said at the start, we acknowledge as a government the importance of primary production industries to this state via the contribution they make to state revenue and the economy and also employment. With these comments, I think the amended motion better reflects where we are today.

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (12:46): It gives me great pleasure, but also sadness, to speak on this motion. I thank the member for Hammond and I also thank the member for Light for his amendments. I am going to play the middle road and say they both have good motions here, but one of the things I will highlight is: why are we talking about this in regard to the toughness out there in the regional areas of South Australia?

This is a financial crisis out there in our regions. It is not just a 12-month period and it is not just a dry period; this extends from a collapse of commodity prices that started in 2023, in about June, when we saw lamb, beef and mutton collapse and correct by over 70 per cent from the heyday and the prices we saw prior to this period. We have seen a number of seasons since then that have made it even harder for rural businesses to cope.

You have to then add what everyone is suffering in Australia: a cost-of-living problem. What does that have to do with farming? There are inflationary problems that have occurred since 2023 and, really, since COVID that have made it much more expensive to be in business compared to what it used to be. We have not seen prices for our commodities on the world market to cover those extra costs and we are wondering why we are finding it so hard to be financially viable in these tougher times.

My electorate of MacKillop extends from some very high-rainfall areas down towards Mount Gambier—but not Mount Gambier—all the way up to Pinnaroo, Lameroo and Tailem Bend, and they have all suffered in this dry period. There are areas in the Limestone Coast area of MacKillop that are on record levels of non-existent rain; in other words, they are depleted, rain has not fallen and it is a record dry period. It has been described in maps of red, but where that red is darkest is record territory for landowners.

With that acknowledgement of how tough and dry it is, what can we say and what can we do? All I would say is that I thank the government for, first of all, recognising this dry period. I would think that it is not just a state government issue, though. I wonder why the federal government is not mentioned here because this really does come back to a lack of income. I can tell you that we do not have a tax problem anymore in the regional areas, because you have to have a profit. The federal government will be missing out on revenue because we are not paying tax because of the losses that are being incurred right across areas like MacKillop and elsewhere in regional South Australia.

One of the things that I would ask be given due consideration is: how do we actually help people financially when things fail? We have heard from the member for Hammond about how people are outlaying $1 million to put their crops in on the wish and the dream that it may rain and it might give them a crop, and they have do to it to be in business—come a good spring, come a good winter and a good harvest.

If they do not put in the million dollar crop, they cannot participate in that outcome. The problem with that is that million dollar outlay does not have a guarantee towards rainfall and it does not have a guarantee that they will be harvesting a crop in October, November or December. That is the risk that the agricultural sector finds itself in.

I have just explained that we had a commodity collapse in 2023 and we have seen hyperinflation and costs go exorbitantly high. We are now seeing dry periods with record rainfall deficiencies right across the regions, not only in the area of MacKillop but right across the southern region. Actually, I will extend it: I know it is an area from Melbourne to Perth on the Mediterranean southern winter rainfall. It has been deficient in that area. There have been some pockets that are okay in Western Australia but in general it has been really tough.

It has been exemplified by the technology that is out there. The crops that were harvested last harvest actually indicate the developments we have made. As the member for Hammond described, had we been through this dry period that we have just been through during the seventies and eighties, we probably would have seen record dust storms and the tillering that used to take place during the summer to maintain weed control. That does not happen anymore.

I also thank the government. I know that the supports that they put in such as Rural Business Support and Rural Financial Counsellors are absolutely beneficial in this area. I am already hearing around the football fields from locals that farmers are so busy feeding, working, cannot find staff, cannot afford staff, that they are not participating like they used to. They are becoming introverted in their stresses and worries. These are dangerous times, times when we have to be very much cognisant. I want all rural families and people to reach out to make sure that people are engaging, they are communicating and they are getting together at those normal sporting events on Saturdays and the like.

I mention an interesting reach out by a lady named Mrs Linda Cameron from Bairnsdale, East Gippsland. Most recently, she travelled from East Bairnsdale towards Robe in my electorate. She had made 11 boiled pineapple fruitcakes and dropped them off at mailboxes on the way. One of the McBride properties was lucky enough to receive one of these boiled fruitcakes. It was a kind gesture from a regional mother, I would imagine, from Bairnsdale understanding the toughness of dry periods and reaching out to say, 'We do care. We appreciate everything you are doing. These are tough times that we all have to work through.'

I also want to highlight the cost and severity of this drought. When I belonged to a business called A.J. & P.A. McBride I saw that the cost is exemplified by the size of this business. On a weekly basis they are feeding out 400 tonnes of barley per week on these southern properties, costing $160,000 a week until it rains and there is actually grass. These funds that we are spending we are not making; they are adding to our losses in the financial year that we are in and it will probably make it even tougher for the financial year we are moving towards in 2025-26.

They are serious figures. They are across the board. We are not alone in this. Livestock producers are all going through that pain. It is something you have to maintain or you sell. If you sell then you do not have anything to feed but then you have to buy back. You then take the risk of what that buyback price is and normally it is exorbitantly high, so you usually maintain a nucleus breeding flock to make sure you do have a flock to go into what hopefully will be a good winter. We do not even know. Winter is in June, which is less than a month away, and it still has not rained significantly or properly right across this state. Some areas have received some showers and there are some green pockets, but in general it is really tight and tough out there.

I thank the member for Hammond and I thank the member for Light. I am going to leave a couple of minutes up my sleeve to allow the member for Flinders to have his say. I hope in this place and federally it is recognised that these are tough times and I hope that everyone in this chamber realises the severity of what is going on out there.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (12:53): I rise to speak on this really important motion, a really important one, and every week until it rains I am going to be on my feet bringing the truth to this chamber about what is actually happening. It is a slap in the face for my people to see the rewording of this motion from the member for Light to say, 'recognises that the Malinauskas government engaged extensively' and then to use the words, 'the drought support package is comprehensive and effective'.

I am here to tell you at the moment, for my people, it is absolutely not comprehensive or effective. What we are having to deal with at the moment is some pretty unprecedented conditions right across the whole state. For this government to be patting itself on the back at a time when farmers are crying out for a better concentrated effort for those who are really doing it tough at the moment is indeed a slap in the face. It shows the lack of awareness about what is actually happening at the moment.

I was honestly distressed to hear—even just this week I have had word—that PIRSA have decided in their ultimate wisdom that they would not be renewing the contracts for the Drought Hub node coordinators at Minnipa and Orroroo. If you actually take the time to go to Minnipa, to go to Orroroo, you will see the desolation that they are having to deal with at the moment.

The drought coordinators' contracts are finishing up at the end of the financial year and they have been told, 'No more.' Their job on the ground is to connect farmers with services directly and this government has decided that it is not necessary. Minnipa and Orroroo in particular are two of the areas hit hardest by drought at the moment in our state. They are central parts of both sheep and crop growing areas that are facing multiple years in a row of drought.

If you have been to Orroroo, you know, talking to the people on the ground, the challenges they are facing. If you go to Minnipa, to Streaky Bay, or up to Ceduna like I did last week, you will see the desolation in the paddocks. There is absolutely nothing on the ground except for the white limestone rocks that are poking out. For the government to decide that we do not need a Drought Hub coordinator in those places anymore, I think is—

Mr Pederick: It's a slap in the face.

Mr TELFER: It is more than a slap in the face, it is an utter show of disrespect for those communities. When it comes to those supports that are supposed to be comprehensive and effective, let me just say that the promises that have been made about supports for fodder and feed have been misguided and, unfortunately, we are now seeing communities having to try to directly go to these providers to actually get help on the ground.

If you have taken the opportunity to read The Advertiser this week, an advocate for regional communities is actually putting herself out there. Suzie Kenny from Streaky Bay has been putting together a perspective from farmers all around the state—not just the West Coast but predominantly in my area and across the whole of South Australia—and some of the stories that she is hearing about what is actually happening on the ground are truly distressing. One message in particular I think summarises what is being faced at the moment. I will not share this person's name but they say:

We are not sure what to do. We are lambing at the moment. It won't be long before they (ewes and lambs) are going to need more than they are getting now. The last lot of feed which we were lucky enough to get, we had to borrow money for. Next thing is to sell off future breeders.

This is a situation not just for these growers but for the over 100 who already have their feedback into this campaign. We need to put more effort into saving our sheep because this is not just the present, it is the future of the livestock industry in South Australia. Although there has been a lot of patting themselves on the back, this government is missing the mark when it comes to actually delivering for regional communities in particular.

As I said, to be able to deal with this as an individual business is hard enough, but to deal with it as an individual community, like the community of Orroroo or the community of Minnipa—it is not just those small communities these drought coordinators are having to deal with, it is the wider community as a whole.

Last week, as I have said in my regular visits through my electorate, I covered several hundred kilometres, and saw sheep standing in paddocks with nothing to do because there is no feed for them. I spoke to farmers who could not find hay anywhere in the state. I have spoken to farmers who are trying to talk to some of the groups that the department say they should. They have no feed either.

It is so frustrating for me to see how PIRSA have been so hands off with the actual management of this. They have left that responsibility up to the charities involved. To hear the backslapping around the concessions for ESL or for registration—well, can I just say, as with the question I asked last time in this place, that only hits 800 farmers out of the more than 9,000 farmers in South Australia. It is not actually helping those who are really doing it tough in our regional communities. It needs to be better.

You need to be listening to what is actually happening on the ground for those affected by these drought conditions. They are facing this challenge every single morning. They are having to make decisions about the future of their business, the future of their farms, the future of their families, which generations have contributed to, and they feel they have been let down by the government and been forgotten, especially those who are within my electorate.

I think that is really a disservice from us as decision-makers to our community and especially at a time like this when decision-makers should be doing what they can to proactively support people who are really doing it tough and are in distress. It is a real kick in the guts, a slap in the face. However you want to describe it, it is not good enough, especially for my community on Eyre Peninsula.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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