Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are over 900 dairy farmers in my immediate region. Some of those are slightly outside of my electorate, but over 900 farmers associate themselves with the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District. Many of them have been in absolute crisis from the time of the clawbacks in 2016. They had barely got themselves back on the table when we were hit with this drought.

It has been a very, very tough time for many of our dairy farmers, but to suggest that we have not been working with them is absolutely absurd. The farm household allowance has been put in place. We have kept making adjustments to the farm household allowance to ensure that more and more people are able to access this money to effectively put food on the table, to maintain their dignity and to be able to pay essential household bills. The allowance is not meant to fix up a farming business. It is there simply so that we are able to offer them the assistance that they want when they are going through a really tough time.

Right now we have no-interest loans to enable not just our farmers but also businesses associated with primary industries to consolidate their debts to no-interest loans—

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