Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise tonight to speak in support of this motion introduced by my colleague the member for Cowper. I have been quite interested to sit here listening to the contribution from the member for Page. While I do not doubt her concern and empathy for the cane growers on the North Coast, I am afraid that does not help them out of their predicament. The member for Page should note that this motion calls on the government to take action to help the cane growers in northern New South Wales. We have heard a monologue on the member for Page's activities and on letters she has written, but it missed the point: that governments can make this happen. The frustration the cane growers have is that, while they are seeing money squandered elsewhere—in home insulation programs and double priced school halls and a whole range of other things—when something comes up and they really need the funds—

Ms Saffin interjecting—

I sat silently, Member for Page, during your contribution. When something comes up and we need some decisive action, the money is not there and we get excuses. There is a precedent for this. In 2000, a major rainfall event went through western New South Wales and, at the point of harvest, decimated the wheat crop. The Deputy Speaker would have been a member here at the time and may remember it, as someone involved in agricultural activities. It was devastating—right at the point of harvest, in early December. The then Deputy Prime Minister immediately instigated $60,000 in replanting grants. That was a huge benefit, to not only those farmers but the entire community and Australia as a whole. It was not welfare. It was not benefits. It was not relief payments. It was an investment by the Australian government in its food producers. I would say that the money that went into those farmers in that wet harvest, that replanting grant, would have been repaid in taxation 10 times over in the next couple of years by stopping those farmers going to the wall. And it is not only the farmers that it goes through. A replanting grant—and that is what the Member for Cowper is speaking about—flows through to the agricultural suppliers and the contractors. And having that cash going through helps to keep that core number of people in a community so that you can keep services like education, medicine and all those things going.

I, too, am disappointed sometimes at the misguided nature of the finance coming out of this government. My electorate also suffered, largely through the floods at Christmas time. Indeed, parts of my electorate, communities and individual farms, were underwater or surrounded by water for two or three months. They received no funds. And now some of them, who had received Centrelink payments, have been asked to return them. There are farmers who had come through eight or nine years of drought who, on the point of harvest, were completely wiped out. I flew over thousands and thousands of acres of unharvested wheat standing in water; that wheat will never be harvested. A replanting grant at that point would have been very useful as well. But it was not forthcoming, and so those communities now are really suffering a cash shortage.

So I support the member for Cowper's motion here. I am not a cane farmer, but I understand that cane is a very intensive crop. It is very expensive to get established and to plant. And it is a little bit unusual, and different from the crops that I am used to, in that it lasts in a two-year rotation. So when an event wipes out the crop, as this one has, it is very expensive to replant, and the consequences of that flow through for not one but several years.

The member for Cowper has every right to come into this place and speak up for the farmers on those issues. And if the member for Page is offended by that, or needs to apologise for the inaction of the government on that, then I am disappointed because I would have thought that it was the role of all in this place to bring to light, to the Australian Parliament, the issues that concern the people they represent.

So I am concerned about the priorities of this government when money seems to be bountiful for some things and very tight for others. We speak a lot in this place of food security and climate change and looking after the environment, but here is an opportunity to actually do something practical. And it is not just about funding these farmers to plant a crop. If these farmers are forced off their land, if they have to sell out because they are in a financial bind, then years of expertise—sometimes two or three generations of expertise—is also forced off that land. And that becomes a problem because quite often the land is bought up by corporate investors who have no idea about growing cane. One of the great frustrations in here to me, as someone with an agriculture background, is that, in some quarters, there is no recognition of the skill that farmers have. It is as if they are a tradeable commodity, so that if someone goes off a place and leaves the land we will just replace them with someone else. While many farmers have tertiary degrees, many do not. They gain knowledge and skills from the time they are knee-high and following their father and grandfather around the farm until they finally take control of the farm themselves. That will be the real loss here. It is not just about $15,000 or $25,000 for a replanting grant. The real loss will be if these people decide: 'This is just too hard. We will cash this out. We will sell our cane farm to a developer. They might turn it into a Club Med or an ecovillage or put in some ski boats down by the Clarence. There is good money in that, and we will buy a unit at Yamba and watch the Pacific Ocean.' That is not a bad outcome, except that the expertise of these people, their productivity and the dollars they give and have given over the generations to their community, to the state of New South Wales and to this country will be lost. It is appalling that for just a few dollars—we are not talking about a large number of farmers—their situation could be alleviated.

I understand why the member for Cowper has brought forward this motion. He understands how difficult it is for people in Australia who are running their own business, particularly those who are running an agricultural business, when mother nature throws a double whammy at them and puts them in a place they have not been before financially. When this happens, it is very nice to think that the government of this land can make their future and the future of the community in which they live a priority.

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