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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-31 Daily Xml
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NORTH-EASTERN PASTORAL AREAS

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:49): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries questions about drought conditions in the state's far north-eastern pastoral areas.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: My constituents have contacted me about the drought declarations—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Yes, a lot of doorknocking up there—and assistance that follows from those declarations currently in force in Queensland in parts or whole of 27 council areas and that were just concluded a month ago in Western Australia.

My constituents have pointed out to me the deficiency in rainfall in the pastoral areas of this state's far north-east. Just this morning I received a map from the National Climate Centre (which I am sure minister Hunter has already studied) indicating that the far north-east of South Australia, central Western Australia, eastern and northern parts of the Northern Territory and Western Queensland are most likely to experience higher the median maximum temperatures for the next three months commencing tomorrow.

On 3 October the latest Bureau of Meteorology drought statement included north-eastern South Australia as an area with 18-month long-term rainfall deficiencies. If the minister wants to look at the map linked to that page, it shows large areas of our state's far north-east have the worst rainfall percentages in the nation and—the drought statement notes—ranks among the worst for dramatic decreases in upper soil moisture.

Queensland graziers can now access $10,000 in rebates from their state government's Drought Relief Assistance Scheme for freight and emergency water infrastructure, including carting water to animals. Queensland has also frozen the 2013-14 rural land rents, has allowed grazing on national parks and reserves for starving cattle, has provided more transport assistance for farmers and schoolchildren, and has provided mental health workshops.

Western Australia, meanwhile, during their drought declaration, processed 146 rural assistance payments contributing over $800,000 in assistance and $320,000 for their Rural Support Trust as their drought was described by their government as the worst in 70 years.

Finally, the New South Wales government claim that there was a new national approach adopted last year that looks to transition states from declaring drought affected areas but, instead, sees seasonal conditions declared and a more flexible approach to drought assistance so farmers can be assisted before the drought begins to bite, rather than waiting for exceptional circumstances declarations. Having said that, my questions to the minister are:

1. Is the government considering, or will the government consider, for South Australia's far north-east some drought assistance similar to that currently on offer in Queensland and recently on offer in Western Australia?

2. How is the government managing the process to replace drought declaration and exceptional circumstances eligibility so farmers can access funding help sooner, not later, in conditions like we are experiencing now in the far north-east of South Australia?

3. Can the minister clarify whether South Australia has signed up to the Farm Finance debt relief package announced by the former Labor federal government in April, or is it now too late?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:52): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Of course, drought here in South Australia is often a looming issue for us. It seems to be that if it is not one—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Well, at least I don't have an intellectual drought like you do. Water might fix my problem but water is not going to fix your problem.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: To clear the record, she was talking about the Hon. David Ridgway.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I am being distracted by the Hon. David Ridgway, Mr President. The response to drought really sits under a national approach, a national drought policy position, to which all jurisdictions are partners. In fact, an intergovernmental agreement was implemented in May 2013. That was with the former government and, until we are told differently, I assume that this is still in place. This policy was about emphasising building the preparedness and resilience to droughts and other periods of hardship while providing for mainstream access to social security support for farmers in need. That arrangement is effective from July 2014 and we have been active in developing transitional arrangements since then.

Since 1992, the national drought policy has been centred on exceptional circumstances, the EC measures that we are all familiar with: EC interest rate subsidies, household relief payments, exit grants triggered by EC declarations of defined regions. A review of the policy assessed that its objectives were not being realised and that EC are more likely to be the norm with climate change.

The new approach will no longer make declarations of drought and provide assistance according to lines on maps. It will instead focus on building preparedness of the farm sector to manage businesses through droughts and other adverse periods, while providing time-limited financial support for farm businesses and families experiencing hardship on an ongoing basis as part of the mainstream social security arrangements.

The IGA sets out a number of responsibilities so, unless the federal government has changed its position on this, the commonwealth is responsible for funding and delivering a time-limited farm household support payment based on individual need, including reciprocal obligations aimed at driving behavioural change, case management to support reciprocal obligations and promoting primary producer taxation concessions, including the Farm Management Deposits Scheme.

The role of states and territories is to encourage the delivery of uptake of the national approach to farm business training, and the shared roles and responsibilities are to coordinate an approach to the provision of social support services, contributing to tools and technologies to inform farmer decision-making. The IGA sets out principles where a jurisdiction decides to implement drought support measures, and the principles then allow for additional support during droughts that will not contravene the intent of the overall reform process. Those measures have been put in place, and any of our farmers here in South Australia who are suffering from drought-related financial pressures have those measures available for them.

I was also asked about the Farm Finance initiative. What a sad story this is! The Australian government announced this initiative to build on the ongoing financial resilience of the farming sector that currently is struggling at high levels of debt. I have reported in this place that, prior to caretaker mode, the South Australian government signed off—finalised—the components we were responsible for in terms of outlining a system and process to put in place to enable us to do this. We sent that back prior to caretaker provisions being put in place, but unfortunately it was not able to be processed in time; the government of the day went into caretaker mode, and we were not able to proceed with the rolling out of that Farm Finance assistance. As soon as the new minister was appointed—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: Barnaby.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Yes, I wrote to the Hon. Barnaby Joyce the day (or day after) he was appointed minister, outlining where South Australia was up to and what aspects we had agreed to and finalised. I urged him to expedite the federal government's further consideration and rollout of this, outlining how important it was to South Australia that our farmers have access to this, and again—a bit like what we hear from our opposition here in this state—silence! I have not heard from him about that, and I do not believe that any of our opposition colleagues in this place, to the best of my knowledge, have contacted him either to urge intervention and expedition of this really important reform.

What I did happen to pick up in the paper—I think it was the Stock Journal—was that the federal agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, wants to 'rejig'—'rejig' is the policy colloquialism—the $420 million Farm Finance package to try to provide urgent assistance for drought-stricken farmers in Northern Queensland, New South Wales and Northern Territory.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Not South Australia.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Not South Australia—not a mention of South Australia, but he wants to 'rejig' the $420 million that we still have not got our share of to distribute to northern Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory. What does that mean? Is the federal government going to rob us again? Are they going to take our share, our contribution, and distribute it to other states? Is that what this federal Coalition government is up to?

Are they going to redistribute our share to farmers in other jurisdictions? And what has this lot done? What has this lot done to champion South Australian farmers? What have they done? Nothing, complete silence—complete and utter silence because we know that the Hon. Steven Marshall does not have the guts to go and stand up to Abbott. He absolutely doesn't have the guts. He is in his back pocket. He is a yes-man to Abbott, an apologist for Abbott, and here we see possibly our fair share—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order!

The PRESIDENT: Point of order. Thank goodness, the Hon. Mr Dawkins is listening.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: The Prime Minister of Australia should be referred to as 'the Hon. Tony Abbott', not 'Abbott'.

The PRESIDENT: You will refer to the honourable Prime Minister by his proper title, minister.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I have said more than enough, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Mr Brokenshire.

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