Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a statement I want to make and it is to do with the drought policy and the worsening drought in many parts of my electorate and other parts of Australia.

Can I first of all say that, if people eat food in this nation, they should be engaged in this debate, because our agricultural sector produces the food and fibre that we all enjoy in bountiful amounts in Australia, as well as clean, green, healthy food. I also want to point out, in terms of the agricultural sector, that it is the largest manufacturing sector in Australia. If you look at the workforce from the start of the process on the farm through the processes and the people that are engaged in agriculture—the transport and the processing through to exporting—the agricultural sector is the largest manufacturing sector in Australia.

I want to move to drought. The problem when we came to government was that there was no drought policy. Labor had got rid of the drought policy that had existed over many, many years in the federal parliament. Exacerbating this in many parts of my electorate was the callous way that they banned the export of live cattle, which has had a significant impact on capital values of land across northern Australia moving into the western parts of my electorate of Maranoa and other parts of north-west Australia.

I want to thank the Minister for Agriculture and, particularly, the Treasurer for visiting my electorate. Unfortunately, as it was short notice I was unable to join them because of other commitments. But can I say that they saw firsthand and listened firsthand to the situation in Charleville and Mitchell. I also want to thank them for the banking roundtable conducted in Canberra this week. I think what has come out of that is that the banks have at long last accepted that, whilst there is not a debt crisis per se across all of rural Australia's agricultural sector, there are hotspots of debt exacerbated by drought and also the ban on the export of live cattle.

When I look at the latest drought maps, I look at my own electorate of Maranoa. On these official maps it is all marked red. Then I go to another map in terms of what has happened this winter and what is marked red shows the hotspots in relation to drought and the impact it is having on these communities. In drought policy there is no one-size-fits-all and, as we progress further and further from the last rainfall event, the situation worsens for so many people, particularly in the pastoral zones.

There is no earning capacity and there is no cash in these communities until there is rain, and there will not be cash in these communities until breeding starts again—that may still be another 12 months away. I hope it is not, but it could well be. The other thing I want to say is that, whilst there is no cash on the land out there in these pastoral areas that are totally destocked, $1 earned on a pastoral property is $4 that circulates in the community. That is also an aspect we have to look at—the impact on these communities.