Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Farmhouse Household Support Amendment (Debt Waiver) Bill 2021. I see this bill as particularly important to people across my electorate and also the electorate of Grey—and it's good to see the member for Grey here, and the member for Durack—where we represent the vast farming communities and an agricultural sector which has really propelled the economic recovery that we've seen since mid last year following the COVID shutdowns.

This particular bill is one of the final elements of the radical simplification of the farm household allowance, which is a result of the 2018 independent farmer-led review. As we all know, farm income is volatile and based on uncertain yields, prices and of course the factor of the weather that we can never predict. Under the previous arrangements, farmers were asked to make predictions about their farm household income for the year ahead, which, as we all know, is particularly difficult. And when farmers acting in good faith got this wrong, the business income reconciliation process would make them liable for a debt. This bill is now addressing historical business income reconciliation debts, and will give relief to up to 5,300 farmers. It will also maintain the farm household support as a time-limited payment, with farmers and their partners eligible to receive the allowance for four years in every 10. The farm household allowance will continue to put money on the table when times are tough, allowing farmers to consider the right course of action for their business.

Before I came to this place, I was a farmer for 25 years in a wonderful farming area, Katanning, in Great Southern in Western Australia. We would reliably get 450 millimetres of rainfall annually, but, even given that, we experienced the highs and lows of seasons and prices. It is difficult for people to deal with those ups and downs, particularly when they are under extreme financial pressure, and that is what the farm household support program does. It gives people in that situation the dignity of being able to put food on the table, feed their families and keep their businesses operating until things improve, as they often do—although, unfortunately for some, the seasons don't turn around in time for them to save their farm businesses. This is important support the government provides to the farming community, and I certainly commend the changes that have been made here.

I want to talk more broadly about farming practices and how the farming sector has adapted, particularly in the south-west of Western Australia, where the climate has dried somewhere between 30 per cent and 40 per cent since the 1960s. I will note that the driest decade in my district happened between 1890 and 1900, as per the post office records. The average was about 375 millimetres of rain for that decade. We then saw a rapid increase through to 1960, where we averaged 550 millimetres of rain for that particular decade. Average rainfall figures have fallen since those peaks; they are now around 425 millimetres for the last decade. The member for Grey, who is in the chamber, is a farmer, so he will be aware that these weather cycles change. We don't understand the weather or the climate, I don't believe, at this particular point in time. We don't know why that increase in rainfall between 1900 and the 1960s occurred, and I'm not sure that we understand why there has been a diminution of rainfall over the last 40 years.

Regardless of that, we've had to adapt. The farming system across my region in the Great Southern, and of course across Australia, has had to adapt to changing climates, be they in the shorter term, a five- or 10- year horizon, or over the longer term, a 50- to 100-year horizon. I take my hat off to the farming community for the way they've adapted. The most critical adaptation or change in farming systems, which has been adapted worldwide, began in the south-west of Western Australia. A good friend of mine Ray Harrington developed the no-till farming system. Ray Harrington has been recognised for his work, with an Edison science award in New York—one of the most prestigious science awards that can be granted. It recognised what was a generational change in farming systems. When I first went farming in the mid-1980s, we used to cultivate the country. We used to work it up, we used to work it back, and then we would sow it. That process, over a medium-sized farming program, might take a month to six weeks. In the process of doing that, every time we turned the soil, the wind would evaporate what moisture might be in the soil. Our sowing date, instead of sowing in early May when the first rains came, we would be sowing in early to mid-June when the growing season was already four to six weeks into it.

Crop-growing farms in my area, in my state and, I think it would be fair to say, across the nation have evolved. It is now this no-till or one-pass farming system. That effectively means that, with the use of the chemical glyphosate—I'll come back to glyphosate and the importance of glyphosate in the system. By killing the weeds chemically and sowing the crop on the first rains, what we're seeing is less soil erosion, less fuel being used in this cultivation process and much greater yields from the available rainfall, because we're not wasting it, we're not wasting growing-season time and we're not wasting the moisture being evaporated as we cultivate and pulverise the soil and dry it out. So this particular innovation created by a farmer in my electorate, at West Arthur, or Darkan, has been revolutionary and it has really changed the landscape for farmers dealing with a drying climate, dealing with drought.

Of course we see these crippling droughts on the east coast where it simply doesn't rain. In Western Australia we don't have drought to that extent, although 20 shires across my electorate were drought declared in the most recent round, under the definition of less than 50 per cent annual mean rainfall over the previous 18 months. Twenty out of my 38 shires were drought declared, and I know that many in the member for Durack's and the member for Grey's electorate were as well. That recognised that serious drop-off in rainfall, but Western Australia still produced a reasonably good crop of around 9.8 million tonnes, which is actually above the long-term average, despite the fact that many of our shires were seriously drought declared.

Within that cohort of farmers who produced an average or slightly above average crop, there were many who were suffering severe financial stress. Of course, the financial stress is only one part of drought and low rainfall. The other part is the issue and the mental challenges of continually feeding and watering livestock. Carting water for livestock is a really soul-destroying job. You do it every day to give the livestock a drink, but you know you will have to do it tomorrow and the next day, and it's not actually making you any money or increasing your production; you're just keeping that stock alive, keeping them ticking along until it finally does rain. When you look at the weather forecast at the end of March and they're saying there's nothing in sight for months ahead, it's really soul destroying; it's really difficult for farmers to keep going under those circumstance. That's why for those farmers who are in financial difficulty and having to deal with these other issues it's so important that this farm household support program continues. It supports those farmers and provides them with the dignity of being able to support their families and keep food on the table. Many of them, when the seasons turn around—I've got to say I don't think I've ever seen a season as good as the one we're currently having in Western Australia. We have come off two or three pretty tough years, but this season we've seen general rains across the Western Australia Wheatbelt. I don't think there's an area, including right up in the northern Wheatbelt in the member for Durack's electorate, that hasn't received great rains—although that also came with a cyclone, which has caused a lot of difficulty for those farmers around Northampton through to the Kalbarri area. I really feel for those people. I know the member for Durack has been up there providing support and I think perhaps even the Prime Minister visited that area to provide support for those people.

The rains across Western Australia this year have been exceptional. There are predictions—and it's still early days; we are in the middle of June. There were times previously when we'd only just finished seeding the crop in mid to late June. This year, the crops are knee-high already, and the prediction of a 20 million tonne crop for Western Australia I think, if anything, is a little bit conservative. I've never seen a season where the rainfall has been so general and widespread in every area right across the eastern Wheatbelt, which is, once again, part of the member for Durack's electorate. It's been getting terrific rains. I'm hearing some complaints from farmers about getting bogged, and I say, 'Well, that's not a bad problem to have.' It's frustrating, and I've been in that situation—where you're looking at a machine that's up to its axles in mud, and you think, 'How am I ever going to get that out?' It is frustrating, but, as the expression around our area goes, there's more money in mud than in dust.

It's been a terrific season across the Wheatbelt of WA this year, and I look forward to some terrific results. There will still be some challenges. We've got a good early start, but that does not in itself make a great season. We need some finishing rains. We need to dodge the frosts, which can often lead to some crippling financial losses for individual properties, if a particular crop is flowering at a particular time when we receive a frost. That has happened to our farming business on many occasions. It's pretty tough to get up one morning in early October and see that 50 per cent of your income for the year just disappeared overnight due to a frost. So we've got a long way to go, but Western Australia is certainly on target for a great season and, from what I'm reading, I understand that the east coast is having some great rains and looking at a great season. I'm not a hundred per cent sure about South Australia, but, hopefully, some of the rains that are coming through WA are getting into South Australia.

The Farm Household Support Amendment (Debt Waiver) Bill is about writing off the debts for those 5,120 farmers who incurred a debt because they estimated their income for the coming year at a lower level than it eventually ended up being. They've ended up with a debt because, in good faith, they had estimated that they would require that funding. This bill writes off that debt and gives those farmers some breathing space. Hopefully, with the good season we're seeing this year, they'll get back on their feet and will get up and away again and won't require the support next time around.

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