Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise today in support of the Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2007. This bill will, and will continue to, deliver to the people of the Riverina and beyond. Drought is an exceptionally difficult issue to manage. I congratulate all those communities right across my electorate of Riverina, who are being as supportive of one another as they possibly can be, for the way in which they have withstood the onslaught of the difficulties that have been apparent since 2001 in my electorate.

I was just flicking through some of the announcements that have been made in my electorate on drought issues. They go back to 2001—and then on through 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and now here we are in 2007. In 2001 I would not have thought for one moment that in 2007 I would still be making announcements to my electorate on what additional drought support people were entitled to receive. I think that indicates how very serious this has been, not just in Riverina but in many areas across Australia. It has been particularly bad in New South Wales.

My entire electorate of Riverina has been exceptional circumstances declared and is experiencing the effects of the worst drought on record. The government has committed to assisting those who have been suffering the effects of the drought, including our small businesses, by providing an additional $210 million as of 7 November last year.

Of this funding, $127 million had been allocated for the measures covered by the Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2007. I enthusiastically welcomed this announcement because the viability of many of our agricultural small businesses is highly dependent on the viability of our farm production businesses. While our farm production businesses have been the first group to experience the effects of the worsening drought, there has been increasing pressure on our agriculturally dependent small businesses, and they too have been and are experiencing significant financial hardship.

The announcements that were made on 7 November allowed our agriculturally dependent small business operators access to the same EC assistance and arrangements that was already provided to our farmers and producers. This assistance includes EC relief payments, ancillary payments such as the healthcare card, and concessions under the youth allowance and Austudy means test.

But there was a further announcement. Initially, the announcement was for small businesses 70 per cent reliant on agriculture but employing only up to 20 people. There was extensive concern, particularly in the Temora area. A couple of businesses there were rigorous and unrelenting in their determination to present the case that restricting small business to 20 employees impacted on them greatly because they had set up their businesses in many additional areas. A case dealer might have set up in Leeton or Coolamon or Temora or Coleambally or Griffith, all under the same business, buying locally and employing locals et cetera. But those businesses were precluded because they were employing more than 20 people.

So it was with great excitement, after a significant lobbying process, that I was able to welcome a further announcement—that we would extend this drought assistance to businesses that were employing up to 100 employees. As I have just indicated, it is still for small businesses; most of these businesses are operating in other regional towns that are also experiencing the dramatic effects of the drought. It was a tremendous announcement and I was very thankful to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Prime Minister for recognising just how small business works in rural and regional communities.

The bill will also formalise the current ex gratia arrangements for EC relief payments and allow our agriculturally dependent small business operators to access all of the benefits that are currently available to all farmers. It is not a pleasing thing to stand in this House lauding the benefits of what the government is doing in these circumstances of drought. It is one thing that you do not want to have to do and you would really rather not have to. You would rather there was no drought. You would rather not have to be standing in this House supporting a bill that is providing assistance to our growers and businesses across the region. You would certainly rather drought not be the damaging circumstance in the lives of so many people across our electorates.

It is quite an irony actually to be standing here congratulating the government for being proactive and positive and for moving swiftly in order to address some of the concerns of the many people affected across Australia. As we have seen just recently in our papers, New South Wales farmers and the NFF have said that they do not want to be seen as the ‘poor buggers’. They are proud people who like to stand on their own two feet. It is just that the circumstances they are experiencing now are rendering it almost impossible for them to do that. They do not want our sympathy; they really need our understanding as to why governments are required to assist production in such times of dramatic downturn. It is simply because one cannot control the environment.

Farmers are an extraordinary group of people. If I had to rely on the natural elements to make my living, I am sure that I would not have the resilience to do that. So it is with great pride that we, as Nationals, always stand and support our farming communities for the wonderful job that they do in Australia. I have often said in this House that unless we as Australians want to be running around naked and emaciated we have to support production in rural and regional Australia. This government, to its great credit, has reacted and come to the assistance of our producers and of our businesses that are heavily reliant on producers and on our communities by offering up a range of measures.

This could not have taken place without the economically sustainable management of our finances whilst this government has been in power. Many people complain about the way our government has a bank and a surplus. I will never complain about a surplus. It is the same with our own banking procedures in our own lives and in our own households: if you have no resources in the bank and an emergency comes up then you are not able to deal with that efficiently and effectively. It really is in the interests of everybody to have a very healthy bank balance and healthy reserves for those rainy days. The government follows the same principle: we manage economically the moneys of the taxpayers of Australia so that the government can responsibly respond to issues when they become apparent.

Nobody wants to be in the position of having to respond to this critical drought situation that we find ourselves in. But if we had not had that economically responsible way of managing money under the Treasurer, Peter Costello, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and all the ministers and members of the government we would not have the funds available to be able to provide this assistance. That is what the people of Australia clearly need to understand. In order to respond to the many issues that come up and confront us on a day-to-day basis that have not been planned for, there has to be economic sustainability and financial responsibility from the government of the day. And nobody could accuse this government of not being financially and economically responsible. So there have been many things announced across my electorate that have been of benefit. They are not going to fix all the problems, and we have heard criticism of what the government has not done, but nobody in the House is going to rise today and say that the government can adequately respond to, ameliorate or fix every problem associated with the extraordinary drought we are experiencing at the moment.

But there are things such as funding for organisations to support communities that have been affected by drought. We had a $10 million fund that enabled organisations to apply for between $3,000 and $300,000 for projects for up to two years under our Strengthening Drought Affected Communities initiative. That was an absolutely fabulous initiative. It was for not-for-profit organisations to apply to develop projects to address local issues with local responses, creating local opportunities for families in our drought affected communities. We all knew at the time when all these programs were announced that it was extraordinarily tough for families who were trying to respond in this extraordinary time. These projects for communities could include activities that would increase social participation, provide communal support to share and address issues, build skills and opportunities to make our families and communities more self-reliant, and develop skills in leadership and mentoring and volunteering—embodying all the ethics and ethos that go to make up our country communities. We have heard discussions of suicide watch and the extraordinary suicide rate, which is indeed a trial and a problem that many communities have to deal with on a week-by-week basis. But the government has responded to try to address this and to make available funding that can bring people together.

On Saturday I was at Eurongilly with Gail Commens and the CWA, who were out there bringing together the community. The Rotary Club from Canberra came across and did the barbecue. They brought across a significant amount of assistance packages, which were all lined up for people to take home to help them to get through another week. I have to say that on the drive to Eurongilly I was absolutely staggered to see the condition of the properties along the way. It was just amazing; there was not an ounce of surface coverage—it was a moonscape. I have never seen it to this degree in a supposedly safe, generally high-rainfall area. It was just so bad. I have done a lot of travel across my electorate and I think that area is the worst I have seen. The smell of rotting flesh absolutely permeated the vehicle as I drove out there. When I got to Eurongilly to see the people there, there were kids on a little jumping castle, Rotary from Canberra were cooking a barbecue—they understood the plight of this area—and people were sitting around trying to give comfort and security to their mates and fellow property owners.

Under another government program I had been able to get about $36,000 to do some construction work to rebuild and strengthen the Eurongilly hall so these sorts of activities will be able to continue to take place. As we know, our rural communities have so few places to meet, and they all do a great job of trying to keep their local village or their local hall in the middle of nowhere updated and maintained. They do a fabulous job, but the money has just run out for these communities. So it was great to see how excited this community was that they were going to be undertaking their voluntary roles in rebuilding parts of this hall so it could continue to provide the meeting place for communities who just give so much and are sometimes so little recognised.

So the government have helped in a myriad of ways. They sent around the drought bus, and many of the people across my communities were able to access it—in Gunnedah, Narrandera, Ganmain, Wagga Wagga, Junee, Temora, Griffith, Leeton and Cootamundra. It was a great assistance to these communities to be able to go into the drought bus, to apply for their EC certificate there and not to have to self-assess but be able to get reliable and up-to-date information on what their entitlements were. I felt that it was a tremendous initiative and one that many of the farmers sincerely appreciated, because for most of my areas there is no available Centrelink office and so they have to travel off farm. This is very hard because they are constantly having to feed their livestock and they are carting water because their dams are empty. They are just trying to manage on a day-to-day basis, so if they have to take a day off to come into town the cost of that is quite great when they have to consider the expense of their livestock. It was a great relief to them to have the availability of and access to the drought bus and the community support bus that went around and provided the ability to talk to a counsellor. Certainly it enabled them to get correct information rather than having to wade through the process of finding out what their entitlements were or were not.

In short, I can say that we cannot possibly resolve every issue for drought affected communities. The government can do some of the things it wants to do, but not all of them. I believe the farmers, producers and communities are cognisant of that fact. They are very proud. They do not want to be considered as ‘poor buggers’. They certainly are great Australians. For all of the actions that the government has put in place to assist with and ameliorate some of the problems confronted by our wonderful producers right across our electorates, I am very thankful. I am also thankful that the irrigation communities have been included in the exceptional circumstances arrangements. This recognises the plight that we have, not just in dryland farming. The irrigators have been taking hits to their water for so many years now that it has finally hit home. The irrigators have now found themselves having to apply for EC. I commend this bill to the House.

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