Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We're hearing calls for action. How about you detail what you think? Why doesn't the member for Franklin actually talk about what she thinks would be a constructive thing for a federal government to do in the face of a mouse plague? I tell you what: you can't beat it with dollar bills. You can't beat it by sending the Army out there. There are no simple solutions to this. The solution to a mouse plague is local management, and it is the people on the ground who will front up and defeat them.

On the broader issue of us not regarding farmers and regional Australia, in recent years we've doubled the FMDs—a great drought management tool for farmers. We have the immediate tax write-off now on capital goods. Before that, we had immediate tax write-off on water, fodder and fencing. We have farm household support. Interestingly enough, if those farmers are affected badly enough by a mouse plague, they will qualify for farm household support. There is $5 billion in the Future Drought Fund. We've invested in new drought hubs. In my own electorate in SA, we headed out of Roseworthy. I have Minnipa, Port Augusta and Orroroo that will all have hubs. We have the on-farm emergency water grants and regional connectivity. We've put in another $84 million in the budget.

I might just touch on mobile phones. There was never a mobile phone tower policy under the Labor government—or their policy was: we don't have one. In my electorate, 30 towers have been built, another 18 are on the way, and there are two rounds of funding to come. There was another $250 million in the budget for the BBRF, one of the great investors in regional areas. I've run out of time. But for anyone to allege that this side of the parliament is not on the side of regional Australia— (Time expired)

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