Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the minister explain to the House the importance for electorates like my electorate of Maranoa of the government’s support for farmers and for rural communities across Australia during this drought? Is the Deputy Prime Minister aware of any other views?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Maranoa for his question and recognise that a significant proportion of his electorate has been drought declared and has also been receiving assistance from the federal government because of that circumstance. It is critically important at this time that all of Australia, through the federal government, stand by Australia’s farming community. The announcement that was made by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in terms of the rollover of exceptional circumstances has been widely welcomed because it will give comfort to those farming families across regional Australia who are suffering at the moment from almost the driest and hottest drought that we have had in the history of records being kept in Australia. As the Prime Minister has made very clear, we will continue to support these families and communities.

The member asked if there were other views. Unfortunately there have been a few views expressed, with regard to the viability of farmers across Australia, that the government should not be propping up unviable farmers. The government does not prop up unviable farmers. What we have announced is assistance for exceptional circumstances, and that is exactly what it is: assistance for exceptional circumstances. These people cannot help that it has not rained.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have people like the executive director—

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Melbourne!

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

of the left-wing organisation the Australia Institute—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Melbourne is warned!

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

running around and saying that we should not be supporting the farming community in their time of need, which is just outrageous. To support that, the facts are very clear. The OECD indicates that agricultural support from governments across some of the major agricultural producers is very low in Australia. Listen to these figures on government support for agriculture, the income at the farm from government. In Japan it is 56 per cent, in the European Union it is 32 per cent, in the United States it is 16 per cent and in Australia it is five per cent. We do not prop up unviable farmers in Australia. Australia’s farmers are very competitive and they are facing dire circumstances.

In an article in the Australian today Mr George Davis of southern Victoria, a grain grower, says that his drought relief payment ‘is the difference between eating and not eating’. That is not propping up an unviable business; that is helping a family survive this drought. I think it is outrageous when you have someone like Dr Hamilton from the left-wing Australia Institute making comments in the media like, ‘By repeatedly bailing out farmers through drought relief, which is erroneously called exceptional circumstances relief, we are only making the problem worse.’ I would invite Dr Hamilton to go and talk to some of the families suffering in areas of exceptional circumstance from drought through no fault of their own and to say that this is erroneous support that we are giving the farmers of Australia. Australia’s farmers are amongst the most efficient and competitive in the world, given decent climatic circumstances, and it goes without saying that we will continue to support them.

It is interesting to look at who else is on the board of the Australia Institute, which holds this view about Australia’s farmers, because Dr Hamilton was speaking on behalf of the Australia Institute. Of course, none other than the President of the ACTU, Sharan Burrow, sits on the board of the institute. So maybe the next thing we are going to hear is not just comments about unviable farmers. We are going to hear them say, ‘They shouldn’t be in farming unless they hold a union ticket.’