Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I am not sure that Senator Allison really means to suggest that we should cut back on drought assistance to farmers in order to offset it against water savings measures. That is not how we approach policy. We approach policy on the basis of a need in rural communities, much of which is dryland farming where there is no irrigation because it has not rained, and these people are in desperate need of assistance. We approach that issue on its merits and, as Senator Allison would know, we have provided some $2 billion over the last five years to assist those farmers.

Water management is a separate issue. We are putting in enormous sums of money. We committed an additional $500 million in the recent budget to bring our total funding to the Murray-Darling Basin to $2 billion since we came to government. We have a range of significant programs to assist in the very issues which Senator Allison talked about, but we deal with those on their merits—separate and apart from the very significant support which we feel obliged and motivated to provide for drought-stricken farmers.