Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to bring to the attention of the House the increasing issue of drought. The drought is now progressing. It has been an insidious drought. Drought creeps up on people in such a way that they don't see it like a fire or a flood but its effects are devastating nonetheless. It was good to have a meeting with the New South Wales Farmers Federation in the previous week to see what we can do further as part of a program to assist these people. We already have the farm household allowance, allowing a couple to get around $1,000 a fortnight to keep the wolves from the door and keep some dignity in their lives, the 100 per cent write-off for water infrastructure, the 100 per cent write-off for fencing, the write-off over three years for grain storage, the doubling of the farm management deposits from $400,000 to $800,000 and the rural financial counsellors. These are all well and good, but this issue requires the states to do a little bit more heavy lifting. We need assistance, especially on things such as freight subsidies. I received a text from a farmer just then saying that they need real help in freight subsidies to assist with the cartage of stock, the cartage of fodder and, in some very dire instances, the cartage of water. That is a role for the states, and the states need to go into bat. Finally, it's incredibly important that people have the capacity to offload stock. If we close down the live sheep trade, we are going to make these people's lives so much harder than they already are.