Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management. Can the minister please outline to the House how this coalition government is supporting our farmers and rural and regional communities through the drought and outline to the House what proactive measures we are taking to ensure the long-term productivity and profitability of our farmers into the future?

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. He's seen firsthand the impact that drought has had on his own electorate of Nicholls as it spreads right across this country. That's why this government has stood shoulder to shoulder with our farmers. To date, there has been nearly $1.9 billion put to supporting the here and now through programs such as increasing the amount of the farm household allowance to be able to keep bread and butter on the kitchen table of farmers and their families. It's about putting more rural financial counsellors out there to be able to sit around the kitchen tables and help our farmers fill out the paperwork but also get clarity on the decisions that they have to make. But it's also around the nearly $30 million we've put into mental health not just for farmers but also for their families, because it's children that often see the impact—the financial strain—of this drought. They see the bills on the fridge, and it's important that they're protected and understood and listened to during this.

But, proudly, today this government will introduce the Future Drought Fund Bill, a bill that will create a fund of $3.9 billion, escalating to $5 billion, giving a dividend of $100 million a year, in the good and the bad, that will go to build resilience in our rural communities and farming families. It'll help address climate risk. It'll help address extension, giving our farmers the tools to understand and take up the best practices they need. It'll be about leadership and building resilience in those communities.

But what we've done is make sure that we've taken the politics out of it, and I've got to acknowledge the former member for Indi and the amendments that she made to bring integrity to it. We'll make sure that there's an independent committee that will consult with the community. Through a legislated consultation period of 42 days, we'll be able to go to the people whom we're there to serve. What a crazy idea it is that a government might go and ask them how this money should be spent so they can come back and give us the ideas and the concepts that need to be delivered! To add another integrity measure, we're making it a disallowable instrument so the Australian parliament will have oversight of it.

This is above politics, and we are taking it above politics. We are taking this money from the Building Australia Fund, a fund that has not paid a dividend since 2015-16. Yet we have been able to deliver a $100 billion program of infrastructure spending, whether it be inland roads or rails right across this country. This is about making sure that we get the balance right. We are utilising a fund that has not done anything, and we are doing that in a fiscally responsible way. This is about responsibility and leadership, not politics. So the question comes to those opposite, who, in one of their lowest acts in this nation's parliament, politicised the misery of Australian farmers by voting against the Future Drought Fund Bill back in October: who do they support? Do they support Australian farming families, or do they support the continuation of cheap politics?