Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question and acknowledge the work that she does in making sure that we all do our very best to look after dairy farmers through this crisis. The coalition strongly support Australia's 6,100 dairy farmers and in so doing we have made it our goal that we get a better return through the farm gate. I am encouraged by the recent step up in prices in the dairy industry. Although they are starting from a low base, they show some promise that things are starting to turn around.

The government developed the $579 million Dairy Support Package to assist farmers affected by the decisions of Murray Goulburn and Fonterra to retrospectively reduce farmgate prices. The coalition's Dairy Support Package includes $555 million in dairy recovery concessional loans, with 10-year terms and an interest-only rate for five years. As at 4 November, $35.5 million in dairy recovery loans had been approved in Victoria for 67 farmers in the dairy industry, plus a further $9.9 million in offers had been made to a further 17 farmers. Last week I announced that interest rates for dairy farmers who have already taken out these loans—currently at 2.66 per cent—will be falling to 2.07 per cent on 1 February 2017, making them the cheapest rates I can think of in rural Australia. A new round of dairy recovery concessional loans commenced on 1 November 2016 and these are at 2.47 per cent. Furthermore, we note that—

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