Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am speaking tonight in support of local cane growers. It is a significant industry in my area and I want to outline some of the assistance and some of the work that I have been able to do with them. It would be nice for once to come together and work together in this place for the good of the community and for the good of industry, and I wish the honourable member for Cowper were fair dinkum on this and not playing games with it. I suspect that that is not how it is, so it makes it difficult to say: 'Yes, let's get together. Let's work in the best interests of cane growers on the North Coast.' I have certainly done that, because it is a significant industry in my area.

I met with the cane growers recently and meet with them all the time. They also wrote to me earlier this year. Mr Andrew Tickle, the General Secretary of the NSW Cane Growers Council, said:

I appreciate the efforts you have made on these issues to date, including arranging the meeting between industry representatives and the federal Attorney-General, the Hon. Robert McClelland MP, at Greenridge Hall near Casino in January.

Further quoting:

Your early action in seeking NDRA—

I think it means NDRRA—

declarations for the local government areas in northern New South Wales has also been greatly appreciated by all cane growers.

Speaking to that point, it is up to the state government to make the declaration of natural disaster; then the federal assistance kicks in. It was during the period when we had the floods. There were about seven floods in my area in Northern Rivers of varying degrees—major, minor and moderate—as there were across the North Coast area. I was able to hop onto the phone and ring anybody I could at the state level and federal level and say, 'I want these natural disaster declarations as soon as we can'. I knew that the sugar industry would be impacted and I wanted them to have access, as other farmers and small business do, to what we commonly call the cash grants. I wanted to make sure that that happened. That was not something I advertised, but it became known—hence, the thanks in the letter.

I have met with the cane growers since. When I look at the honourable member for Cowper's seven-point motion, points one, two, three, four and five are straight forward. When you come to number six, it talks about the amount of cash available—the $15,000 and $25,000—it is up to the state government to ask the federal government to increase that assistance. That is how it works. It has worked like that for a long time and we can come into this place, we can get into the media and we can talk about that as much as we like, but that is the system that exists. It just muddies the waters if we are not accurate in how we talk about that. It is up to the state government. Whether it was the previous state government, which was a Labor government, or the now coalition government, it is an issue that I have always said had to be taken up with the state government and the state members. That is absolutely clear.

On the other issue, the cane growers did put up a novel proposal for seeking assistance for planting at any level. In their submission they talk about having two crook seasons. There have actually been three major weather events in total over the last four years that have impacted on the sugar cane farmers. That is what they were asking for. I also had written to the Hon. Katrina Hodgkinson, the Minister for Primary Industries and Minister for Small Business. I have a recent letter from her where she said, 'Thank you for the representations on behalf of the New South Wales cane growers.' They wanted me to write to her on the issue of increasing the category C NDRRA Grant from $15,000 to $25,000 and seeking financial support for the replanting of sugar cane. I knew that the state members in my area had done that. I was asked by the cane growers to do it. I was happy to do it, although that is normally within their bailiwick to do.

I received another letter back from her. The minister says that she is extremely sympathetic to the concerns raised. She said she has had various meetings with local members to discuss these issues and she has also encouraged them to discuss it with the federal minister. That is what we have been doing—discussing it with both. I did not want to do this. I was not bringing partisan politics into this; I was just playing an absolutely straight bat in trying to get the best deal I could for the cane growers. The motion the honourable member for Cowper has put here tonight forces me to bring this in here. It is not what I wanted to do. I just want to see what we can do for them.

There is a letter here that the honourable Minister Katrina Hodgkinson enclosed for me. It is to Mr Andrew Tickle, the General Secretary of the New South Wales Cane Growers' Association, to his address at Wardell. I also meet with Mr Tickle as well on behalf of the New South Wales cane growers. In the letter, among other things, the minister says about the $15,000:

The level of assistance is determined on the impact of the disaster on whole communities and implemented to address the longer term holistic community recovery following a severe natural disaster. The floods in Queensland were very extensive and of a greater magnitude than those experienced in New South Wales and in many cases reached historical record water height levels resulting in extreme flood damage. Therefore the maximum eligible level of support as determined by the national NDRRA was activated in Queensland.

The letter goes on to outline what is available under the scheme and advises members to contact Mr Rik Whitehead, who is the Assistant Regional Director, North Coast Department of Primary Industries, or the New South Wales Rural Assistance Authority for assistance.

It is really clear what the state minister is saying about that issue of the $15,000 or $25,000 and there have been two natural disasters where the honourable member for Cowper has been in the media saying we should get extra money. One was when the Labor government was in at state level and now there is this one, with the coalition government. It is up to them to ask. That is the way the scheme works and I am not sure the honourable member for Cowper understands that. It is up to them to ask and then it can kick in. The minister has been quoted on that point—and when I say minister, I mean the minister at the federal level.

There is one issue I discussed with the local cane growers and also with the Rural Assistance Authority, the body at state level that administers all of these programs. I asked the RAA: 'Is is possible to have a collective loan? There are $130,000 concessional grants—is it possible to have that done in a collective way?' I thought it had happened before, but they said it was not possible. In fact it had happened once before, but for a whole range of reasons it did not work out—the money did not get paid back and it was harder to get money back in that system. That was an example of trying to think a bit outside the square.

Just recently, the New South Wales Sugar Milling Co-operative Chief Executive Officer, Chris Connors, announced the start of the Grower Loan Planting Assistance Scheme, which is being offered in partnership with the Manildra Group. This scheme will offer plant loan assistance of $1,000 per hectare and will be available to all cane planted this year and next year. This is in my local paper, the Northern Star, and it was also in the Daily Examiner. Wayne Rogers, a grower and Chairman of the Richmond River Cane Growers Association, said the initiative was necessary because many people had attempted to plant at least twice last season without success. He said:

They had incurred significant cost but had nothing to show for it.

The scheme is a great initiative and one that they have taken themselves.

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