Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the House only a few weeks ago I made the point that we who live in the coastlands of this Great South Land have great empathy for those suffering through this drought in parts of Australia. I made that point and went further, saying that, if the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the ministers of the cabinet were able to, they could put in even further funds and further effort, and we would be supportive of them doing exactly that. That has happened, and the government has got very strongly behind its drought proposals. The message has to be that we're doing everything we possibly can to support farming families, communities around those farms and the broader wellbeing of the farmers. The drought will end and the rain will come, but we need those farmers to be on-the-ground, living, breathing organisms, to make sure we have those farms in place for when the rain does come.

This nation depends on what they produce. We depend on it for our own food, and we export 80 per cent of it. We need them, we are investing in them and they are our future.

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