Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a real privilege to speak today on the Farm Household Support Bill 2014 and the Farm Household Support (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2014. We have heard from a lot of members of parliament today who represent rural electorates—and of course they have a special interest in this legislation. But I think it is really important that members of parliament who represent in this place big parts of our cities—and I represent an electorate in Melbourne—come forward and say how supportive we are on behalf of our constituents of putting in place this necessary and important support for farmers who are genuinely struggling in a once-in-a-generation drought in this country.

I want to echo the very good words I heard earlier from our shadow spokesperson on agriculture, Joel Fitzgibbon. He indicated that this is an area where we see strong potential for bipartisanship. Labor has done a lot of good work in the area of drought policy, which I will talk a little bit about. Importantly, today Labor is standing here in partnership with those on the other side to say it is important that we support our farmers, and that is what this legislation is trying to do.

I want to talk to some of the specifics of the legislation. This legislation provides a mechanism to implement the farm household allowance. That is up to three years of income support payments or ancillary benefits for farmers and their partners who can demonstrate financial hardship. The FHA is to commence on 1 July 2014. It is set to replace the exceptional circumstances relief payment, which, as you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly, was available only to regions declared to be in extreme drought. Importantly, the bill acknowledges that the government has implemented the interim farm household allowance and allows for the transfer of existing support scheme recipients. It makes some other changes to various pieces of legislation that essentially bring those things together.

I will speak in a little more detail on the specifics of this legislation, but I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about why this issue is so important for Labor. It speaks to our genuine commitment to supporting Australia's farmers and farming communities, especially in an hour of need such as we have before us today. The member for Hunter talked about the high regard in which farmers are held in the broader community. Speaking from the city perspective, I can echo that. What I hear from many constituents talking to me about economic changes in Australia is that they want to live in a country that continues to make things. That speaks to some of the importance of our manufacturing industry, but it also talks about primary industries and agriculture. People talk to me about a feeling that comes through of the honesty and integrity of actual production.

We have a very proud history of agriculture in our country. When we look back on our history, we see that this is the foundation stone of Australia's economy. It was where we started to see this exciting spirit of innovation that we have carried right through our economic history in Australia. You can look back to the beginning of the 20th century, to the development of the stump-jump plough, the combine harvester and irrigation. These are all things that have spread and reformed agriculture all over the world. They are things that happened right here in Australia. When people like the member for Chifley and I put our heads together and think about Australia's economic future, what we try to think about is how we can harness that incredible spirit of innovation and bring that to newer sectors on which we will rely more on the future. Innovation has been the watchword.

We have seen an incredible transformation happen to agriculture in this country. Today, farms that would have required hundreds of employees can be run with just a handful of employees. That is great for efficiency, although it does create issues in some of those farming communities. We are well aware of those. The critical point to acknowledge today is that Australia's agricultural industry is one of the most efficient in the entire world, one of the least protected agricultural communities in the entire world. It is really important that Australians understand that this sector has worked through a very difficult transition over the last 20 or 30 years to get to this point. When I talk to the Victorian Farmers Federation and the National Farmers' Federation about reforms like the one that is before us today, what I hear is them saying, 'We have done the hard yards'. They have done the hard yards. The farmers of this country have made some incredibly tough decisions. They have come out the other end with an agriculture sector that we can be incredibly proud of here in our country.

I think there is a consensus that, having done those hard yards, when something really catastrophic happens, particularly like what we see happening in Queensland, city people are happy to support their country cousins with a safety net. The legislation that we are talking about today is putting that into place. When we think about the economic future of our country, it really has yet to seep into the mindset of Australians that agriculture is not an industry of yesterday for us; it is actually an industry of the future. The member for Hunter talked about what he likes to call the 'dining boom'. We know that demand for food in our world is going to double over the next 15 or so years. We cannot double the amount of agricultural land; it is going to mean more efficiency and more productivity on existing agricultural land. Our Australian farmers can really benefit from this. As I said, we have a long history of innovation. We are poised to take this big opportunity in hand.

But what we will need to do is see farmers through some difficult times such as what we are seeing right now, hence the importance of this legislation. We can be part of this very exciting boom that many in this chamber talk about frequently. But we do need to support our farmers to get there, hence this legislation and, of course, Labor's support for it.

I wish to speak a little bit more about the context. I do not know if any the listeners at home or people in the chamber have taken the time to look at the map of Queensland and see the drought affected areas, but it is genuinely terrifying to see, because almost the whole of Queensland has been declared a drought zone. I think what we are seeing now in Queensland is the largest portion of land ever to be declared drought affected. There is just a little thin strip across the eastern coast of Queensland which is declared not drought affected. Scores of shires have been added to the list of drought affected areas of Queensland. I think this is a very specific incident and definitely justifies the legislation before us.

Let me go back to some specifics of the legislation I wanted to touch on. One of the reasons Labor is so supportive of this is that the bill delivers on what was Labor's commitment under the Intergovernmental Agreement on National Drought Program Reform. This was to provide a new nationally agreed approach to drought programs this included time-limited income support payment for farmers and their partners, based on individual need. We are very happy to see that come into the legislation. If we were to quibble at the margins on this one, there is a question here about the timing of the legislation. We have known about drought conditions in parts of Australia for some months now. There is a little disappointment that it took so long to get to this point when it was obvious some months ago what was needed. We would have liked to have seen this bill be introduced much sooner to enable more timely assistance to struggling farm families who really have been in limbo for quite some time.

A second point I would make on this one is that it is focused on the short term. What Labor wants to see is a real, genuine conversation about long-term drought preparations between this parliament and the farming community in Australia and the bodies that represent them. One of the things that has been disappointing is to see that in December 2013, the Abbott government decided to abolish the key COAG vehicle, the Standing Committee on Primary Industries. That body was established just to consider this question of long-term drought management. It is something that both sides of the House should be keen to work on. Last year, the Commonwealth government and the states agreed through that committee to transition away from the exceptional circumstances program and towards a policy that promoted greater drought planning and preparedness. Unfortunately, despite some rhetoric about interest in long-term drought reform from the other side of the House, we have seen a government that has run for six months now with no real progress on that front. I know the National Farmers' Federation are talking about things we can do to help our farmers in the longer term and we are very committed on this side to see that work progress. So we will continue to hold the government to account and to speak to the other side about how we can progress long-term drought policy.

I might close with a bit more of a sense of the personal on this one. I am very fortunate to have married into a family of dairy farmers in northern Victoria. They are a part of a wonderful dairy community in our little town called Gunbower. Having a city background and then being exposed to this set of small communities in northern Victoria, I know it is really hard to understand, unless you experience it day to day, how tough things can be for farmers in a period of drought. What a lot of Australians who live in our cities do not realise is that, when a community falls on tough times, it affects not just farming families; everyone is affected. All small businesses are affected and everyone just goes into a deep struggle.

Something else we probably do not realise, aside from the widespread effect of things like serious drought, is just how tough things really get for our farmers. Being a part of this big farming family, I know people genuinely struggle to put food on the table. That is not hyperbole; it is real. I know that the people of Hotham do not want to live in a country where we have significant portions of our population who are working doing backbreaking labour day in, day out and still cannot feed their families. I see this package of legislation as my community standing beside fellow Australians, both in good times and in bad. I am very pleased to join the voices in the parliament who are supporting this package.

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