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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-27 Daily Xml
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FARM FINANCE PACKAGE

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:13): I seek leave to make a brief explanation—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Brokenshire.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Thank you, sir. I will start again; thank you for your protection. I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries a question regarding farm finance and the drought conditions in the state's north-east.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Just over a week ago today, the ABC Country Hour ran a segment about the unusually dry year the Allandale Station near Oodnadatta has had and their need for drought assistance. The minister responded to their call on air and criticised the station owners, saying that they had not contacted her or her office. Yet the presenter, Mr Nikolai Beilharz, said immediately that the station owners had emailed her about the situation.

When the questions in the interview turned to the issue of farm finance, the minister, as she has done in this place, proceeded to avoid any responsibility on the farm finance money that South Australia lost by blaming the Hon. Barnaby Joyce, her federal counterpart. To their credit, the Country Hour asked the federal minister to come on the program the next day to respond. The federal minister began his response by saying:

...a Labor Government Minister in South Australia and a Labor Government Minister federally, for three months they were unable to finalise this. Of course now it's become a parochial issue because they see the opportunity.

And later said:

I don't accept her admonishment because for three months her and the Labor Party Minister were responsible for getting this through. Now if her and her colleague in Canberra can't get it through, why is it only a problem for her once the government changes?

In some hope the minister can rectify the situation, and given the science from ABARES and the Bureau of Meteorology lately, the federal minister has indicated that he has money in reserve should climatic conditions change. Clearly, as I have pointed out to this council before, the north-eastern South Australian conditions have changed, sadly for the worse.

The federal minister also blames South Australia's lack of an equivalent to a rural adjustment authority—as they have, the federal minister alleges, in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, what he loosely calls a delivery vehicle. The lack of such a vehicle was something we instead had to deliver through a department and in the minister's own words, if we have such a vehicle, 'We'll be able to help the South Australian farmers vastly better in the future and not have these sort of hold-ups.' After that brief explanation, my questions to the minister are:

1. Is the minister now making urgent representation to the federal minister that we are, like western Queensland, experiencing drought conditions in our state's north-east and funding needs to be released?

2. Can the minister describe the role of Prudential and Rural Financial Services (PRFS), particularly whether that body meets the criteria of being a delivery vehicle as defined by the federal minister?

3. If PRFS is not an adequate delivery vehicle, why don't we have one?

4. In any case, is the minister moving as swiftly as possible to clear whatever procedural hold-ups there are to get access to as much farm finance as possible for our farmers affected by drought or exceptional circumstances?

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) (15:16): I thank the honourable member for his most important questions. I have dealt with most of these issues previously in this place and made it quite clear that the South Australian government agreed to the Farm Finance guidelines back in July/August of this year.

We had done all the things that we needed to do and had set up and put in place all the things that we needed to operate the scheme back then. So we were ready to go then. We signed off on that agreement and that agreement was picked up by the former federal government and taken to their cabinet for approval. They then hit caretaker mode and then election, and now we have a new federal government.

The day that the ministers were appointed I wrote to the Hon. Barnaby Joyce and urged that the rollout of the Farm Finance be expedited, that the guidelines had been agreed to, and that we were ready to go. I urged that he roll that out and reminded him, as I said, that everything from our end was in place and we were waiting on the federal government to provide us with that final contract so that we could sign so it could be rolled out.

This is not rocket science. I have explained before that this state government has taken every possible step to expedite this. This was held up by the former federal government and now the current Liberal government.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: You won't stand up to either of them—you won't fight the federal Labor government; you won't fight the Liberal government for South Australia. You're spineless—absolutely spineless!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, order! We all know Mr Abbott is the Prime Minister and it is a Coalition government.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Thank you, Mr President. And the same position is maintained—not only have I written on a number of occasions now to the federal minister, Barnaby Joyce, I have also spoken to him on the phone, and not only have I urged him to furnish us with the contract that we need to sign so that we can start this thing, I have reminded him time and time again that we are ready to go. I have also reminded him that we have farmers in this state who are suffering drought conditions as well, and I do not think he was aware of that. So, I have done those things.

I would like to ask the Hon. Robert Brokenshire whether he has written to the Hon. Barnaby Joyce and stood up for our farmers. Has he written to support my position? Has he picked up the phone and urged him to furnish us with the contract that I have been so urgently asking him for? I doubt it, because he has been on radio every other day and I have not once heard him say that he has written to the Hon. Barnaby Joyce or that he has picked up the phone and advocated on behalf of farmers. I have not heard him say that. He is on the radio all the time bagging me and misrepresenting the things I say, but not once have I ever heard him on radio say that he has written to support me and the rollout of this scheme—not once—so I would urge him to do the same and the same with those opposite me.

I know that not one of them have written a letter to the Hon. Barnaby Joyce nor picked up a phone to urge him to furnish me with that contract. What's more, it is interesting the selective quotes or references that the Hon. Robert Brokenshire makes to that particular Country Hour interview, because one of the things that the Hon. Barnaby Joyce admitted when asked directly, in fact he was pushed—'Have you provided a contract to minister Gago for signing for the rollout of this Farm Finance?' and his answer was no, he hasn't provided me with a contract, and he was not able to say when he was going to provide me with a contract either. What a disgrace!

So, we see very selective reporting on that particular interview, and I have certainly taken every step that I can to expedite this in terms of ensuring that that Farm Finance is rolled out. Not only have I not heard the Hon. Robert Brokenshire request that that contract be furnished to South Australia, but not once have I heard him criticise the federal government for ripping $10 million of finance out of those funds—$10 million, not once. He is on radio every other day and not once have I heard him stand up and say, 'Hon. Barnaby Joyce, give us back that $10 million.'

I have written a letter to the minister requesting he return those funds to us, urging him to return those funds, and I have not heard the Hon. Robert Brokenshire indicate that he has even requested the returning of that money, so I think that the Hon. Robert Brokenshire is a complete and utter hypocrite until he stands up and urges the Hon. Barnaby Joyce to furnish us with that contract so that we can get on with rolling out that money to our farmers who are in desperate need of those funds.

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