Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I ask my colleagues what the following have in common: the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, the Regional Investment Corporation and decentralisation. The list goes on and on, but the member for Bendigo has it right—

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

And, I should have added, unproven catchment dams. The one thing they have in common is the member for New England. But there's something else that brings them together—another thing that they all have in common: they dare not speaketh their name anymore. The Akubra's gone and so have all boondoggles that the member for New England was most infamous for.

Today the Minister for Agriculture announced a drought policy—and what was it? Nothing. After the Prime Minister's drought talk, he announced that the income support they are giving to the farmers which was coming to an end would continue for another 12 months. He wasn't able to tell them what will happen if the drought is still ongoing in 12 months time. He wasn't able to tell them if they'd have to jump through all those hoops again to access that payment.

But I go back to the Regional Investment Corporation—it's a beauty! This is the pork-barrelling exercise in Orange, where the Nats lost the state seat. The local newspaper there, the Central Western Daily, ran a poll that asked: would the money be better spent helping drought-affected farmers? More than 60 per cent of local residents said the money would be better spent on farmers rather than this boondoggle. (Time expired)

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