Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister convene a cross-party drought cabinet to ensure that representatives from across the parliament work together constructively to respond to the drought emergency in the interests of farmers and rural communities?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for the question. The government's drought response over a year ago was based on the multiparty, multiorganisation Drought Summit that was convened in Old Parliament House, which the opposition was invited to attend, as were all states and territories as well as the National Farmers Federation, the many different agricultural producer groups, charitable organisations, the Country Women's Association, and experts and officials across government agencies and departments.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The drought coordinator.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, the drought coordinator was in attendance there, as the interjection from the member for Hunter indicates. He was actually central to the organisation of that Drought Summit. There were many members from this House present at that summit as well. That summit framed the drought response the government has continued to roll out since that time. Since that time, we have continued to listen very carefully, particularly through the minister for drought, to rural communities across the country to ensure that the response that we are continuing to provide is up to the mark in terms of the needs in rural and regional communities across Australia.

I remind the House that that response has three components. The first of those components is to ensure the direct financial support and assistance, as is the responsibility of the Commonwealth under the National Drought Agreement, which was revised and updated after that Drought Summit, which made it very clear that it is the Commonwealth's responsibility to look after the income support and other financial assistance to farm households and those communities. Issues such as fodder subsidies and freight subsidies and the direct care of animals and others involved in the welfare of the farms themselves is the responsibility of the states and territories. The reforms we've made to farm household allowance alone mean that, in a period over just over four years, with the announcement we made last week, individual farm households will have received, as couples, $125,000 in direct financial support—not a loan but direct financial support over and above what they are able to earn in terms of off-farm income—and we lifted the threshold to up to $100,000 for off-farm income. That enables them, even with the off-farm income, to access the farm household allowance. There was support for drought affected communities through the Drought Communities Program. So it's not just about the farmers and graziers specifically; it's also about the communities that are affected. We've invested in over 120 councils and their shire areas to ensure that we're supporting the continuation of growth of their economies during difficult times, and of course we've invested in water resilience. That's our plan. We're getting on with it. We'll continue to get on with it, listening to farming communities.