Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was just five minutes of rant with no evidence, no support, no facts and no knowledge. It was typical coalition carry-on. They sit on their hands and do nothing when it comes to supporting farmers and rural Australians. As always, there is the talk and the grandstanding. The member for Wannon carries on, but he could not produce one shred of evidence, because it is a political stunt. Not once in this debate have we heard them identify one single cut to the program. That is because there are none. This is where the failure of those opposite quite simply lies.

The government did announce an extension of the program. In fact, they put another $4.6 million in. I would love the member for Wannon to listen. I think he should apologise for what he just said. We extended this program to $14 million from the original $9.6 million. It was fully subscribed, which is why it stopped. He scurries out of here. He could not bring forward one piece of evidence. The government put a program in place and increased the amount of funding. It was fully subscribed and then it stopped. That is what happened.

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