John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I too am very proud of my region, just as the member for most of Tasmania is. I wrote to the Prime Minster, which I do not do very often, some three weeks ago, on 28 September. I wrote to him because of the deteriorating drought situation in western New South Wales, south-western Queensland and parts of north-western Victoria and what is happening with the crops. I said to him that within the month we would know exactly how bad the current harvest was going to be. Much of the central west and the far west of New South Wales is going to have another disaster. This cannot be put down to climate change. Climate change may well have an effect on how severe the drought is, but it is not the reason for it. Things do not happen that quickly.

I believe it is time for the Prime Minister, as I said to him in the letter I wrote to him, to show the leadership that his predecessor did whenever Australia was in trouble. Once again, this part of Australia is in trouble. I am addressing my remarks to central and western New South Wales. While a lot of the area is still receiving exceptional circumstances benefits, there are people there who have been in drought so long that they have reached the limits of assistance that they are allowed to get. There are two issues here. Firstly, there needs to be a continuation of the exceptional circumstances payments. The second issue, which the agriculture minister has ignored advice on, is not to take areas out of the scheme simply because they have had rain after six or seven or even eight years of drought, as happened in March of this year in parts of the region. They almost certainly deserve to go back in, as this crop obviously will fail. It is about time the Prime Minister went out there and showed empathy and gave support, both moral and financial, to the people of the region. The situation is life-threatening. We know that mental health problems are exacerbated every time the drought reaches a new stage. The Prime Minister is taking cabinet to Bathurst next month. That is a wonderful opportunity for him, because the harvest will have started and it will be obvious how bad it is. The people in the region, central western and western New South Wales, will welcome him and show him just what the state of play is. I invite him to come out and see it for himself.

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