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

I begin my contribution this afternoon by acknowledging the severity of the drought our country currently faces, which is experienced by not only our farmers and their families but also the rural communities that rely so heavily on the health of the farming sector. When our farming income is down then the local economy is also down. If ever there were an issue in the parliament on which we should be taking a bipartisan approach, this is it. I'm not suggesting that this speech will be particularly bipartisan, because we seem to be somewhat beyond that, but with the departure of the member for New England I believe there is still an opportunity for us to regroup and approach drought on a bipartisan basis.

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