Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Today I also reintroduce the Banking Amendment (Rural Finance Reform) Bill, or, as I like to call it, banking protection for mum-and-dad farmers. I've spoken in detail on this bill on previous occasions and so I will only briefly summarise its content and intent.

We will be talking again this week about the terrible impact that drought has had on our landowners.

All too often farmers are forced into debt and despair during droughts and hard times. We know all too well the scourge of anxiety, depression and suicide in rural communities that accompanies a drought.

Capital rich and income poor, the ability of small primary producers to pay their creditors is reliant upon the vagaries of weather, commodity prices and exchange rates.

Banks have not always acted with integrity in their dealings with farmers struggling with factors beyond their control.

This bill seeks to address the power imbalance between family farmers and banks, relating to loans under $5 million. It seeks to do this prudently and even-handedly and without undermining the incentives for rural lenders to supply credit to agricultural communities. But it also seeks to restore trust and integrity to the financial relationships between lender and farmer.

As we saw in the banking royal commission, in regional areas many farmers were treated absolutely terribly by the banks—I would say, in many respects, even more so than those who were seeking funding from the banks in metropolitan areas.

In the 45th Parliament, this bill was successfully referred to the Standing Committee on Economics, and I thank that committee, and in particular the member for Goldstein, who is in the chamber today, for their interest in this issue. As the inquiry lapsed with the dissolution of this House, I will be seeking to re-refer this bill to that committee, and I thank those members in advance for their support.

As before, I look forward to working with all parliamentarians and parties that appreciate the importance of cautiously and sensibly addressing the balance between farming families and the banks. Thank you.

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