Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

On the evening of Friday, 13 November, the area that I represent was hit by a severe hailstorm and small tornado that did a lot of damage to horticultural crops and to houses across the Sunraysia area. Estimates are of damage to $150 million worth of table grapes, $50 million worth of wine grapes, an unspecified figure of dried fruit and almonds as well as grain crops and other horticultural products. Since then I have had the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Barnaby Joyce, come and visit and talk to growers. I have also been in personal contact with the Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, and the state Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Regional Development, Jaala Pulford. I am pleased that category A of the National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements have been made available, but I am also comfortable that the Jaala Pulford is in Mildura today and I look forward hopefully to a further announcement of category B or category C. I am of the strong view that there should be made available clean-up grants so that these producers can begin the work of getting back on their feet. Four hundred and fifty properties have been hit. The very nature of horticulture is that it is done on smallholdings, so when events like this hit, they hit hard. I say to the community: we need to look after our mates, from a mental health point of view. People will have a very difficult time ahead, as they have lost this year's crop and potentially next year's as well.

See this speech in context