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

I rise today to talk about the ongoing drought. Have a look at Tamworth: Tuesday, sunny; Wednesday, sunny; Thursday, sunny; Friday, sunny; Saturday, blowing; Sunday, sunny; Monday, sunny; Tuesday, sunny; Wednesday, partly cloudy. That is the issue that's pressing on people's mind. I want people out there to know that the National Party is hard at work. We continue to work towards the development of further policy that works on the back of the changes to the farm household allowance; the concessional loans scheme; farm management deposits, which are being used at the moment; and water infrastructure, which we're rolling out. On top of the Rookwood weir and places such as Emu Swamp, we now have the Dungowan dam. There is half-a-billion dollars in that alone. We're also working towards the Mole River dam.

But we know that there's more that we can do, and we'll be putting our shoulders to the wheel to do precisely that. We know that if we work closely with our communities, with the special knowledge and skill set that they have, we can deliver further programs to make sure that the certain requirements that are particular and, in many instances, different can be dealt with. The National Party has had at its forefront looking after people of regional areas. They did it under John Anderson, with the exceptional circumstances program. The National Party did it through the agriculture white paper, and it continues to do it now. I want to remind the Australian people that the National Party remains hard at work.