John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to return this debate to some facts—the fact that the coalition government is delivering on its election commitment to establish a Regional Investment Corporation, to streamline delivery of up to $4 billion in farm business concessional loans and the national water infrastructure loan facility. The corporation, as we know, will be established in Orange, in the central west of New South Wales, and it will be open for business from 1 July 2018.

The corporation will be established as a separate entity within the Agriculture and Water Resources portfolio, the concept being that farmers will be able to access farm business concessional loans quickly and easily with a streamlined and nationally consistent application and approval process. The corporation will also provide the flexibility for the Australian government to respond quickly and efficiently to emerging issues such as drought or even an industry crisis. Quicker and easier access and more flexibility are envisaged through the Commonwealth being able to act directly—rather than, as was the case previously, through state based agencies. The corporation will administer up to $2 billion in concessional loans designed to encourage growth, investment and resilience in our rural and regional communities. Concessional loans support the long-term strength, resilience and profitability of farm businesses by helping them to build and maintain diversity in the markets that they supply domestically and internationally.

The corporation will also, as I said, deliver the $2 billion national water infrastructure loan facility, which has been established to provide concessional loans to the states and territories to fast-track priority water infrastructure projects. The facility provides the incentive, therefore, for states and territories to get priority water infrastructure projects underway in order to increase agricultural productivity, generate local jobs and simply create more opportunities and growth for regional communities.

Labor says it will scrap the Regional Investment Corporation. Following the 2017 budget, Labor announced they would not support this corporation in the future and proposed to pocket $28.5 million, they said, in establishment costs as budget savings. However, over the past four years, the Commonwealth has paid $37.65 million to the state governments and the Northern Territory government to administer various programs. Therefore, establishing the corporation will be, in its own right, a significant budget saving, to the benefit of the Australian taxpayer.

Of course, Labor falsely claims farmers are choosing not to take up these loans. The reality is that 1,342 farm businesses have been approved for $724.4 million of assistance. In contrast, therefore, to Labor's bleatings and continued lack of understanding of agriculture and its importance to our economy, the government, through the Regional Investment Corporation, will be focused on assistance that includes the Farm Business Concessional Loans Scheme, drought assistance concessional loans, dairy recovery concessional loans and business improvement concessional loans. The Farm Business Concessional Loans Scheme assists eligible farmers to continue to improve their farm businesses and to become financially self-reliant—helping their local economies and communities, therefore, to prosper. Drought assistance concessional loans can be used by a farm business so it can maintain operation during a drought, to recover when that drought breaks and to prepare for future droughts. Dairy recovery concessional loans are available to assist commercially viable dairy farm businesses affected by the retrospective decisions in 2016 by Murray Goulburn, Fonterra and National Dairy Products to reduce farm gate milk prices. I note, as a former state minister for agriculture in Queensland, that at the time our state agency, the Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority, or QRAA, was the leading agency in the country and was asked by the federal government to administer schemes in both the Northern Territory and Western Australia. I also note that Queensland farmers were collectively the largest recipients of some of the concessional loan categories.

It should be noted that the Commonwealth's drought policy program seeks to help build the sustainability and resilience of farmers, to help them to prepare to manage through droughts and other challenges that affect farming industries. When the coalition came into power in 2013, we inherited essentially an empty cupboard on drought policy. Labor had abolished the longstanding exceptional circumstances drought support policy and cut the then agriculture department's budget in half. They abolished Land & Water Australia and threatened the longstanding policy to match farmers' research and development levies, with the former Labor agriculture minister at the time, Tony Burke, asking the Productivity Commission to review the rural research and development system. Labor wanted to review it such that research and development funds, which are matched by taxpayers, would end up going towards their own government priorities, in contrast with the policies identified by farmers themselves, who pay those levies.

Exacerbating those problems under Labor—particularly in the drought-ravaged regions of Northern Australia, in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia—was Labor's economic and trade catastrophe of the live cattle export ban. That has been documented widely as an exemplar of Labor's ignorance of agriculture, regional Australia and our international trade relationships. Certainly on the eastern seaboard, and elsewhere in our country, the beef industry—and not just the live cattle export industry—continues to recover from that catastrophe. By contrast, the coalition has confirmed that farmers' research and development funds should continue to be prioritised, on behalf of the levy payers that pay levies into those funds, towards projects that have the intention of boosting farm gate returns, of putting in place assistance measures where needed for this very important sector of our economy that is the basis of most, if not all, of our regional communities, and developing the trade deals vital for our future prosperity.

In terms of the Regional Investment Corporation details, first of all can I say that concessional loans is an issue in which we must have a government focus to support and facilitate an industry that is first and foremost focused on productivity through production and marketing systems throughout such systems. I'm talking there, of course, about production related research and development; the trade deals for which our government has gained accolades from the agricultural industry right across Australia; the detail of trade protocols that must then be worked through and are being worked through with the likes of Korea, Japan, China and other countries that our Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment and his cabinet colleagues continue to focus on; and small business support in regional areas, especially ones that are farming and agribusiness focused, through taxation relief, the instant asset write-off, of course, and the like. In terms of agriculture and agribusiness in our country, the government must be there to support, where necessary, regional communities through the programs that will come under the purview of the Regional Investment Corporation, such as the ones we are discussing today, for drought and other negative impacts, industry issues and, at times, market failure.

The second key area I want to address in a little further detail is the National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility, which I think provides an exciting basis for regional development in the future across the country. Unfortunately, the likes of state Labor in my state of Queensland, for example, are proving to be totally unwilling to participate in the scheme to the detriment of regional economies in our great state, such as that in the region around the Rookwood Weir proposal that the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources promotes vigorously at every opportunity. We know that Labor and the Greens don't like the idea of catalytic infrastructure projects, such as weirs, dams and water pipelines, that promise so much to the productive future of regional Australia. The facts clearly reveal the coalition government, in contrast to those opposite, through the Regional Investment Corporation, are very much focused on such productive infrastructure to support such industries, producers and regional economies alike.

The latter period of my term as agriculture minister in Queensland coincided, if you like, with the member for Hunter's brief stint as the federal Labor Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. He and I very clearly discussed the utter confusion created by his Labor predecessor, the then Senator Ludwig, by announcing suggested assistance programs that had no details and no time lines and were all done, I can confirm, with no reference to industry across the country, including AgForce and the Queensland Farmers' Federation in my state of Queensland, the National Farmers' Federation itself, of course, and other state agencies right across the country. I was pleased to see, therefore, that, upon the change of government and the appointment of the member for New England as our Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, that we saw immediate moves towards clarity on assistance schemes for rural producers and regional communities. He, I and colleagues across the country moved very quickly through detailed and constructive conversations about the contrast between state-based farm assistance delivery mechanisms, as I said in our case to QRAA, or the Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority, and the processes that he quite rightly was focused on in his reinvigorated federal Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.

As I said, at one stage, such was its expertise, QRAA was the leading state agency and was required to administer schemes for other regions, such as the Northern Territory and Western Australia. But I could very clearly understand the federal minister's frustrations, though, with some state agency processes that simply did not facilitate the timely and responsive distribution of federal assistance that he, as federal minister, was and remains intent upon. I therefore congratulate our Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources on this move towards national consistency, responsiveness and, ultimately, fair dinkum service to farmers and regional communities in each state and territory when the need presents itself.

As a passionate regional member of this House, I also wish to make comment on the establishment of the Regional Investment Corporation in the location of Orange in the electorate of Calare, represented by my colleague Mr Andrew Gee. Here is our government walking the talk in terms of encouraging regional development and decentralisation through our country. I'm aware that such topics have been considered over recent terms of government and through various inquiries, and I acknowledge that the current Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation, which I chair, will undertake its own considerations of such matters in the coming months. But I believe the establishment of the corporation in a regional location such as Orange should be recognised as a very commendable move, and something that any regional member of this House would welcome in their own electorates—certainly I would in Groom. I congratulate the member for Calare on his successful advocacy in this regard.

The Regional Investment Corporation Bill 2017 gives effect to the coalition's election commitment to establish such a corporation. As I've outlined, as a Commonwealth corporate entity, it will deliver our farm business concessional loan and water infrastructure loan programs. And the fact that it will do so from a regional location such as Orange represents an appropriate and welcome move from the minister for agriculture. I, therefore, congratulate him on behalf of regional Australia and producers from one end to the other. I thank him and his team for delivering on this government commitment that will benefit all of us throughout the nation.

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