John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to follow the member for Gwydir. By way of response, given his efforts with the establishment of the National Water Initiative, I report to him that the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline is proceeding at the enormous rate of six or seven kilometres of pipe per day, with all of the different branches. That is providing tremendous positive encouragement for the people of the Wimmera Mallee. On their behalf, I express appreciation for the work that the member for Gwydir did in that regard.

I am very pleased to speak on the Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2007. By way of describing the situation that exists in my federal division of Mallee, it is very sobering to note that the entire area of 76,000 square kilometres is now fully declared as being in exceptional circumstances. As the member for Gwydir and other speakers have mentioned, this is having a very sobering impact upon the constituents of that region.

The eastern Mallee, which is the north-eastern corner of my division, has been in exceptional circumstances for three years. The far eastern section of my division, which is the Goulburn and Loddon River valleys, has included irrigators. The rest of the Mallee, the northern Mallee and western sections, is in exceptional circumstances now for its second year. I was very grateful a fortnight ago to have the southern Wimmera finally included in a full EC declaration, which has taken some time to achieve. Given the state’s desire to include the whole of western Victoria, we now have a situation where the entire section of western Victoria—west of Bendigo and Ballarat, all the way south to the coast, to the South Australian border and the Murray River—is in exceptional circumstances. That gives some concept to those people who may reside in the metropolises of just how dire the circumstances are.

Of course, at the South Australian border it is the same and north of the Murray River, in the member for Farrer’s constituency, it continues. In fact, when you look at the huge number of regions, I think it is now well over 60. South of the Tropic of Capricorn, basically the whole continent is in exceptional circumstances.

There are some people in my electorate who assure me that they have seen worse, but I certainly have not. I can remember my region of the world in 1983 when, after touring the world and studying, I decided to establish a consulting engineering practice with offices in Swan Hill and Mildura. I will never forget my late father’s groaning when I advised him of my intention in the middle of what was then being described as one of the worst droughts. It was hard operating a small business. I found those first few years very difficult and had to range wide afield for engineering work to sustain my business. Thankfully even in those days the mining sector provided a source of work, and it is interesting to reflect that that sector of our economy is still booming and therefore enables us to prop up those sectors of primary industry that are currently doing it extremely hard.

Back in the 1980s the arrangements for exceptional circumstances did not deliver for grain growers in the north-west of Victoria, because they were entirely based on rainfall outcomes. Whilst rainfall over the summer and Christmas periods is welcomed, it does not necessarily mean that it can ultimately deliver a grain crop. Because of the entire dependence on rainfall records in those years, the arrangements for exceptional circumstances did not deliver the outcomes we now have for desperate primary producers.

This bill deals with the secondary aspect of the small business commerce that occurs in regional Australia, and that is one of the reasons I mentioned my experience in the mid-1980s. I hear anxious concern now even from retailers in the strong provincial centres, which are basically Mildura, Swan Hill and Horsham—Horsham being the hub of the Wimmera region. I understand their anxiety at their reduced sales figures, because they all say to me that, on the day we receive an inch and a half of rain in April or May, their business suddenly booms. People then have the confidence to spend on items which have not been necessary and on which they have conserved their spending. I look forward to that outcome. Although it seems to be remote, I am quietly encouraged that even the Bureau of Meteorology is suggesting the possibility of the end of the drought.

As the member for Gwydir has said, this is not an event that has just happened; it has been occurring at least over the last eight years. In fact, a reasonable crop return was possible for the grain growers of the Mallee in 1985, but it is fascinating to observe that they grew a reasonably returning crop off a total of four inches of rain in a region that has a historical tally of 10 inches; although I struggle to see how that has ever been achieved in the last decade. That reflects the efforts that have been undertaken in grain research and plant breeding to grow varieties nowadays that can deliver outcomes with reduced rainfall.

But even that has not been enough, and I am grateful for the safety net that has been put under my primary producers. Bear in mind that the EC declarations that are now in full force across my entire electorate include every producer of primary products. That includes horticulture, stone fruit growers, grape growers and vegetable growers. I am immensely grateful for the recognition of the obvious fact, which had to be demonstrated, that even irrigators, whilst they might have access to irrigated water, do endure downturns in their productivity when it is not raining. When it is not raining, that simply means they have to use more irrigation to compensate for the lack of precipitation.

Every commodity in my electorate now has access to exceptional circumstances. It is very sobering to recognise what use those primary producers are making of these arrangements. The farm household support is not substantial, but it does provide some relief. Of course, now with full EC across the entire electorate farmers are able to apply for what they see as the most beneficial, which is interest rate subsidies. I am immensely grateful for the willingness of the government to consider unfinished business as this drought has worsened and be prepared to alter arrangements to introduce better flexibility and to consider people beyond the primary producer sector.

That brings me to this bill and what it addresses. Until now, the assistance to small businesses, through the same arrangements available to primary producers, has been made by ex gratia arrangements. This bill formally puts these measures into effect and alters the definition of small business so that businesses employing 100 people, rather than no more than 20, can now qualify for assistance. I am immensely grateful for that outcome. There are a large number of agricultural machinery manufacturers in my electorate. Each of the provincial centres and a lot of the smaller towns have agricultural manufacturers and they are producing things such as disc ploughs that are two cricket pitches wide and are benefiting from export opportunities. There are header manufacturers, spray manufacturers and cultivator manufacturers. Many of them have had more than 20 employees, so they are very grateful for the willingness of cabinet and the government to extend the safety net for their businesses. Of course, they will have to demonstrate their dependence on agriculture. That is a reasonable stipulation. They will have to demonstrate that 70 per cent of their income and business activities are entirely reliant on agriculture. I am confident that those businesses I have mentioned will be able to justify that, given the impact that the downturn in business as a result of the drought has had on their activity.

I believe that is important because it will assist us to retain those skilled workers who are involved in those industries. These are very often welders, young apprentices, diesel mechanics, motor mechanics and auto electricians of a young age. If we lose them from our region and they get attracted into the mining sector, where they would obviously be able to generate a much more substantial income, they will never come home. The measures that this bill puts into effect will give those businesses some capacity to retain that expertise for the day when we all hope and pray there will be a turnaround.

The member for Gwydir has made reference to the impact that this drought has had on water. I am delighted that the Commonwealth has taken a lead role in addressing this matter. The reality across the entire southern part of our continent, south of the Tropic of Capricorn, is that there are something like 17 million Australians currently enduring some level of water restriction. Some are only in stage 1 restrictions, but I would just like to remind members of this place that the water users serviced by the Wimmera Mallee stock and domestic water supply system, including all of the townships across the north-west of Victoria, have been in stage 5 restrictions for the last five years. It is very sobering to travel back from Canberra, noting the wonderful green growth that is everywhere here, and arrive in Horsham, Warracknabeal, Birchip, Donald or Sea Lake and see how brown and unkempt the parks and gardens are. There are people in the provincial centre of Horsham who have been watering their roses using buckets and showering with a bucket to retain this precious resource.

I remain hopeful that the lead being shown by the federal government will bring the states into an arrangement where we can finally address this issue. Victoria does have very secure water arrangements. To the extent that it is demonstrated, the horticulturalists on the southern side of the Murray—the Victorian side—are currently being supplied at least 95 per cent of their licenced allocation. There is some uncertainty as to how that will continue after April. However, on the New South Wales side, many of those similar horticulturalists with the same commodities are down to as low as 15 per cent of their licenced allocation. So there is an enormous disparity in the arrangements for water security between the states. I would like to see all of the states come up to Victoria’s arrangements, which are very secure. We Victorians would not want to see any dumbing down of what those arrangements deliver. They have cost water users over decades. It costs money to ensure that water is not allocated unless next year’s supply is in storage. It has to be funded. I think to some extent that has meant in Victoria’s circumstances that many of the irrigation supply districts have not been undercapitalised. They are still delivering water through water systems that are 100 years old. Many of them are soldier settlements from both world wars. I am hopeful that the money that is on the table will give Victoria an opportunity to ensure that capital can be provided to give those irrigators who are producing important and valuable export commodities a system that can deliver to them a 24-hour a day, seven-day a week supply. With water assurance like that, they can grow whatever crop they choose. If they are enduring a downturn in one commodity, they can switch to other crops.

Returning to the bill, I wanted an opportunity to express my gratitude to cabinet, particularly to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. It is a whole-of-government approach to addressing the needs of families associated with primary production and small business. I am also reminded just how stoic and resilient the people of my electorate are. It is a great honour to represent them. They are very reluctant to ask for help. In fact, in quite a number of circumstances they have stoically resisted going to see the rural counsellor or have expressed sentiments like, ‘I won’t be seen dead in a Centrelink office.’ On some occasions I have gone with them, because I can understand that stoicism and resilience and the desire to be independent.

It has been very encouraging to see initiatives occurring outside the activities at both state and Commonwealth government levels. For example, my own church, the Swan Hill Church of Christ, which has sister churches in metropolitan Melbourne, cooperated to distribute three semitrailer loads of food and commodities, some of them luxury items, which were distributed to needy families across the Wimmera-Mallee. From talking to the recipients, whilst there is a humbleness and embarrassment, it does provide them with enormous spiritual support and encouragement to know that people in the cities care that much.

One of the metropolitan based Victorian Country Fire Authority services recently got together and established some cash and food parcels and sent them up to Horsham for distribution through the CFA network. Only last Saturday the state government provided a free country and western concert, hosted by Lee Kernaghan himself. Twenty-thousand people from across the Wimmera and the southern Mallee attended that concert. Some might ask: what does a concert do? It provides that much needed spiritual support to assist people to have social interaction and to not despair.

I often say to them that the nation is benefiting from an economic boom, thankfully, because of the ascendance of our mining sector, that it is the mining sector’s turn to prop up the other sectors of our economy that are not doing so well as a result of the drought and that they should feel no embarrassment and no reluctance to take advantage of the resources that are being made available to them, particularly those provided in this bill. I would also like to mention the rural counsellors, of whom there must be a dozen servicing that huge area of north-western Victoria I represent. They are working extremely hard, and I am immensely proud of their work under enormous pressure. As well as putting applications together and addressing the financial difficulties of families, they are also associating themselves with some of the pressure and emotional strain. I am immensely proud of the work they are doing.

I am also immensely proud of the three Centrelink offices—in Mildura, Swan Hill and Horsham—and the wonderful way in which they empathetically deal with the huge workload they are confronted with. It can be a little disappointing sometimes: some families express dissatisfaction with the time it takes. I ask them to stand by the process and, whatever they do, not sit out there and self-assess. I say to them that they may well be surprised that they do qualify for assistance provided through measures like this bill and others that the government makes available. I say: do not self-assess. If you need assistance to find your way through, I can put you in touch with Centrelink or any one of the number of rural counsellors. I commend this bill to the House.

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