Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for New England for his question, and I appreciate the way in which he represents the interests of his constituents and, more broadly, the interests of farmers in rural Australia who are doing it tough through a combination of drought and the impact of the global economic recession, the ‘great recession’. The honourable member rightly raises the question of possible anomalies around the schemes which have been announced. It is for that precise reason that the government, in putting forward its program, also indicated that there would be an administrative scheme to deal with anomalous cases.

Administrative payment schemes are common features for acts providing for lump sum and one-off welfare related payments. The purpose is to enable payments that are similar in purpose to those provided for in the act to be made to people who have missed out on the act payments due to unforeseen circumstances or unintentional limits in the operation of the act. This not something new; it has been done, I am advised, on previous occasions as well. Therefore, in the case of farmers to which the honourable member refers, I would strongly recommend that he advise those farmers to correspond, either through the member or directly to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, to seek to have these individual cases resolved on an individual administrative basis.

Furthermore, I would say to the honourable member that on top of the farmers hardship bonus—which, as he rightly indicates, has been voted against by every member of the National Party in this place, and they know in their hearts that it was the wrong thing to do, but they still went ahead and did it—eligible farmers are also eligible for $900 if they have children who receive FTB part B and for a $950 back-to-school bonus for each school-aged child if they are eligible for FTB part A. I draw that to the honourable member’s attention.

Finally, what I would say to the honourable member is that, more broadly, the government is seeking to support families in rural areas who are dealing with the extraordinary circumstances which still prevail in many parts of the country through drought. Over $1.1 billion has been committed to exceptional circumstances assistance this financial year. As at 31 January 2009, there were approximately 19,630 farmers and 1,000 small businesses in receipt of EC income support. There are currently 71 EC-declared areas covering 49.1 per cent of Australia’s agricultural land.

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