David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Longman for his question and for his interest in agriculture. Let me tell the member that the story of agriculture is a good one. The story of agriculture is: just add rain—and, when it does rain, our farmers and our communities will rebound. But, until then, we need to work with those communities to get them through one of the worst droughts in our nation's history.

Tackling drought is like going up a set of stairs: as it escalates, you take another step. That has been our response as a government, including with the $7 billion that we put out there to support our farmers and our communities. But one of the first things we did was get unanimous agreement, after the drought summit that the Prime Minister called with the states to understand the responsibilities, where states look after animal welfare, freight and fodder and we look after farmer welfare.

Our response comes under three pillars, and it has been in action for some time, as this drought—even in my own electorate—has been going for some eight years. The first pillar is about the here and now, giving people the support, the dignity and the respect through the farm household allowance, putting farm household counsellors around them to help them make the decisions with their financial counsellors about their future—their strategic future—and coupling that with concessional loans from the Regional Investment Corporation, which is saving farmers tens of thousands of dollars and putting money back in their pockets in the here and now.

Our second pillar is about our communities, because they also hurt economically. That's why we have the Drought Communities Program, putting a million dollars into each of these shires to build lasting infrastructure. That allows the 122 shires that we've given a million dollars each to to procure local materials and to use local tradies, as a stimulus to keep those towns going. It is also about targeting mental health and being able to build the resilience in our farmers and in our communities to get through one of the worst droughts in our nation's history.

The third pillar is about the future—a future we're positive about. That's why the government is providing over $500 million a year in tax incentives to farmers so that they can be prepared for future droughts, through farm management deposit offsets and infrastructure write-offs. There is also the Future Drought Fund—a $100 million dividend every year to equip our farmers and our communities with the tools to be able to tackle drought into the future.

On Sunday we announced more infrastructure for water. Finally we found a state other than Tasmania that will lead with us to build the infrastructure, to build the resilience and to build regional economies through water infrastructure, which will change the nation. I welcome the Queensland government's announcement that they also want to build it, but now it's time for them to put their hand out and grab ours. I plead with them: come with us, even on Myall River. You can support New South Wales, in supporting Queensland and those communities in Warwick and Stanthorpe. This is a time for leadership from all levels of government. I plead with every level to work with us to build a stronger and better regional Australia.

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