David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for New England for his question, because he knows full well the impact the drought is having not only on his electorate of New England but also as the drought envoy for this government. He has an understanding that, while we have had rain recently, there are some drought-affected areas that haven't had any.

It's important for us all to acknowledge that one rainfall event will not break this drought. So it's important the government continues to be agile, to not only deliver in the here and now for our farmers and our communities—because it is not just farmers who hurt through drought; it is also those small communities and small businesses in those communities that also hurt—but to make sure we prepare for the future and learn from this drought. And that's why, we are proud to say, we have already put $1.9 billion on the table. One of the key measures was increasing the farm household assistance to put money in farmers' pockets so they can spend it in the local butcher, baker, IGA to keep the money flowing in the communities.

We have made sure we have made it easier for them as well by investing in more rural financial counsellors. These are the angels of this drought. They help the farmers fill out the application forms and have a strategic look at their businesses for their future resilience and for their business profitability for years to come. It's important we get these people on the ground, so an extra 39 have been employed, and 37 of those have already hit the ground. I'm proud to say we haven't stopped. We're going to continue to make sure we deliver this in an agile way.

It's also about making sure we broaden our investment into the communities by making a $1 million investment for each local shire for those shire councils to invest in projects to build infrastructure that employs local tradies and to procure a lot of the materials from local hardware stores to keep those businesses going through the tough times.

But, to look further than that, the National Water Infrastructure Fund will get an extra $500 million to complement the $500 million we have already put for key water infrastructure projects around the nation. We have already started eight shovel-ready projects around the nation. Looking to farmers, we are giving them $50 million in rebates to put in on-farm water infrastructure projects to build the resilience and preparedness of their farms for the drought. We are also investing in one of our great natural resources, the Great Artesian Basin, an extra $30 million to continue the capping and piping to make sure that resource is there for the future.

One of the proudest things for us as a government is, for the first time in this nation's history, we will have a nationally coordinated drought approach underpinned by a $5 billion Future Fund, which will give it a dividend year in, year out from 2020 that will invest in new research and development and in infrastructure to build the resilience and preparedness of the agricultural sector, to prepare and protect our regional communities.

The story of agriculture is a good one. The story of agriculture is just to add rain. We are proudly a $60 billion industry and, with this investment, we'll go a lot further.

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