Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with pleasure that I rise to speak on the Rural Adjustment Amendment Bill 2009. I come to this place and this bill with a background knowledge and a responsibility to represent my constituency. With my background—having been brought up on the land and having run my business on the land—I think I have a fair understanding of life on the land and life in small rural communities. I understand how the exceptional circumstances drought and business support has been essential to the survival of many families and many small businesses during this exceptionally long drought. I know that, when rain comes in an area, it does not fall universally. We have noticed, particularly in Queensland—and it is on the record—that a lot of the rainfall events we have had have been almost tropical downpours but they have fallen in one spot and not always spread to the same intensity across a large area. That has created a lot of difficulties in the assessment of seasonal conditions for the people on the National Rural Advisory Council.

I note that this bill will allow those board members to be reappointed. I want to put on record my personal thanks to those who serve on this board. It is a most difficult job. In fact, I know one member of the board very well because he has lived in my electorate—I think he lives just outside Maranoa now. They put their heart and soul into the job. Given that it is a difficult job, and sometimes they stand almost as judge and jury, I think people may from time to time be a bit too willing to criticise a decision when these people make those decisions with the best of intentions and the best knowledge that they have in the time that is available.

I acknowledge the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, who is at the table. I thank him and particularly his advisor Martin Breen, who I have only just learned during this debate will not be remaining in the minister’s office. Martin was able to give me a briefing before the recent announcement to extend or end EC assistance in parts of my electorate of Maranoa and many parts of Queensland, and you might say he sought some guidance from me. Given that Maranoa is an electorate three times the size of the state of Victoria, boundaries can often be difficult. Trying to gain an understanding of where the boundaries fall in and out of EC areas where assistance will be ending creates challenges. I have written to the minister about some of those decisions, particularly in relation to the northern Darling Downs region around Bell, Cooranga north through Jandowae and up through to the south Burnett around Blackbutt and Cooyar—just to name a few—and an area just north of Roma in the Bymount east region. Why did I write to the minister? People from these areas contacted my office when they heard that they were going to be excluded from exceptional circumstances and yet very near to them other people would remain eligible. It indicated to me the difficulty the NRAC committee have had in assessing areas but also the fact that it is impossible for the committee to travel every road and visit every nook and cranny of an area. Sometimes some of the information they have to use relates to rainfall that has occurred in a region when the rainfall recording station may be 40, 50 or 60 kilometres from some of these farms that are going to be excluded—in fact, they were excluded on the 15th of this month.

I have spoken to you, Minister, and Martin Breen in your office. We need the minister in Queensland to request an extension of these areas. I urge you and your office to get onto the minister in Queensland. I know they have had a difficult budget, and I will not bring that into the debate now, but I urge him to request of your office to consider extending these areas that I have described—and I describe them in good faith, not in a political sense but in a genuine attempt to help people because that is what the exceptional circumstances scheme is all about.

I took the time to drive through these areas from where I had received these telephone calls—so I am coming to this issue having driven through the region. It is amazing; you drive through an area and it looks beautifully green and there are some crops, but you go another 20 kilometres along the road and there is drought. I have spoken to a few people. They say, ‘Go up Cooyar Creek a bit further and you will find it is devastated.’ There is no water in the dams—isn’t that an indication that those heavy rainfall events have not occurred? The dams did not capture any water because there was no water. I know it is very patchy and very difficult, but I urge the minister to get on to the minister in Queensland and hurry him up because we are dealing with people—farming families. Having driven the area, I had a few calls from farmers. The men out there are always very stoic. They just appreciate a call back from me after having spoken to my office. They say, ‘I think I’ll be all right, but I’m worried about the women.’ It is not that they are worried about the women; it is the women who are worried about the men.

In my electorate is Aussie Helpers, a voluntary organisation which has been working tirelessly for the last six or seven years and maybe even longer. It is based in Dalby and Charleville and does a magnificent job. I want to acknowledge the work of communities as well, right across Australia. They distribute not only goods from the local community but also hay and other support that has come from other parts of Australia. I acknowledge the great work of the Country Women’s Association. The emergency relief money to be distributed to areas that has been provided by our government—I am sure it will continue; I hope it does, Minister—to the Country Women’s Association is important. The Country Women’s Association is one of the great organisations in this country. Its people do their work quietly without fanfare. They do not seek recognition. It is based in nearly all rural communities. The women in these organisations have been able to distribute some additional support. The member for Hume spoke of the additional goods, clothing and personal effects that might help to make a difference in a family. I just want to acknowledge the great work of the Country Women’s Association. It is a great organisation and I commend each and every one of them. Minister, we must make sure that this parliament appropriates money to keep them doing the job that they do across Australia. Sometimes it means that a power bill is paid or a telephone account is paid so that a family remain connected through the telephone.

I also want to acknowledge the work that Woolworths have done in supporting our farmers. In fact, I went into our local supermarket on the day when, across Australia, they raised something like $7 million which was then distributed through the Country Women’s Association to the needy families out there. It was a great initiative. It came from the profits of the trade of that day. Thank you, Woolworths. It was great to be there. From my point of view, to be at the checkout and see the skills of those who check out the grocery lines is just amazing. I was there fiddling and trying to press the buttons—’Yes, that looks like an apple’—we would weigh them, put them in the bag and make sure that we do not put the ice-cream on top of the hot chook, and things like that. They are very skilled people. They whisk it through and I fiddle with the first two or three items. I saw it on the day when Woolworths were conducting a campaign across Australia, with the profits of that day from each state helping farmers in drought relief.

I make no apology for the support that we appropriate for our farming communities in exceptional drought. They are the people who feed our nation. Minister Burke, from time to time we have been on the same podium. I remember last year at Millmerran when you spoke very kindly and generously about the very special place that farmers have in our lives and in this nation. I and many people were pleased to hear you say that and to see the approach that you are taking with this portfolio. Farmers are a very special breed. I think they do it out of love and, of course, to make money, which is more challenging every year. They do not play on a level playing field when it comes to the international stage, as you would be aware. So I make no apology for the support that we must continue to put behind our farmers. For instance, look at what we give the motor vehicle industry in Australia. It is important that we have a motor vehicle industry in Australia. When Australia had its own car, the Holden, we all rejoiced in that. We put something like $6 billion into the manufacture of Australian-made vehicles every year. I do not think it is too much to ask that we continue to support those farmers in need. I would hope that the parliament would always see that there is a need to support those who, through no fault of their own, have to deal with seasonal vagaries from day to day.

The other things about not extending the exceptional circumstances support are that they would lose not only the health card and some income support but also the additional support that can flow through youth allowance. There would not be an income or asset test applied. They are always worried about how their children will gain access to further education, because they want to make sure that they are not lost in this exceptional drought as the generation of young people who lost the opportunity for further education because their parents were not able to afford to send them away. Youth allowance is available without an income or assets test. There is also the assistance for isolated children to gain access to education. There is a basic allowance for assistance for geographically isolated children to gain access to primary and secondary education, and there is additional support available from the federal government—I think I am right here—for families, without an income or assets test, because they are in receipt of exceptional circumstances support. So, when they lose exceptional circumstances status, it is not just the income support or business support; there are other elements of support for families that are absolutely essential.

Minister Burke, I would ask you to get on to the minister in Queensland. I had my state colleagues make sure that they contacted the minister. This is not a political issue; this is about families out there, who I feel very strongly for, and those small and maybe very patchy areas—it would have been very difficult for the NRAC committee to have identified them without perhaps walking the entire length and breadth of my electorate, which they are not able to do. But, based on calls to my office, there are people out there who are extremely worried as we go into winter. They have done all that they can to keep their enterprises going. The season is not with them. They have appreciated all the support they have received, including business support, the health card, assistance for their children and income support. In the overall scheme of the federal budget, it is a very small amount of money.

As I said earlier, I make no apologies for supporting the need for this parliament to support the people who feed our nation and provide valuable underpinning of the economies of many regional communities and enormous overseas export wealth. Minister, I leave it with you. Once again, I thank Martin Breen for the way we have been able to work together. There are the areas that I have written to you about that really need that extension, in some form or another, to receive that additional support, even for six months until the end of the year to see whether they get a continuation of support. The calls we get, even from Centrelink, sometimes worry me. Centrelink is probably, on a day-to-day basis, closer to this than you, Minister, your office or me. The alerts that they give me from time to time worry me. It is about continuing to support families in particular areas. There may be only 40 to 50 families but they are 40 to 50 families that deserve our support.

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