Sandy Macdonald (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2007. I am pleased that the Greens are going to be supporting this legislation, as is the opposition. I will pick up on a couple of things that Senator Siewert said before I make my contribution.

Certainly, climate change is real, but a drought is a drought, and this, substantially, over the last three or four years, has been a drought. Where I live, we have records that go back about a hundred years, and there have been some very dry times before and, I guess, there will be some very dry times in the future. Every dry time is painful, and I do not think we should forget that. But I do not think we should immediately say that this particular drought is climate change. Climate change is certainly a fact of life, but I do not think we should use climate change as a means by which we can be distracted from an immediate problem.

I might say that, over the last decade—certainly after the drought of 1994-95—on the Liverpool Plains, which is west of where I live, some of the crops that have been grown, particularly with the wheat and sorghum crops are quite remarkable when you consider the amount of rain that has been available to those farmers. They are innovative, and they are using technology and methods of farming which would have been unthought of a decade ago. And it is a great compliment to them that they have been able to adapt and will continue to adapt. The yields of these crops are absolutely extraordinary, so that when they get a good season they will be even better.

I have pleasure in making a short contribution supporting this Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2007, which responds to the announcement by the Prime Minister on 7 November last year to allow agriculture-dependent small businesses access to the same exceptional circumstances assistance that is provided to farmers more generally. This assistance includes EC relief payments and ancillary benefits such as the healthcare card and concessions under the Youth Allowance and Austudy means tests. Assistance to small business operators will be available until 30 June 2008, unless extended by the government—and I am sure that it would be extended by the government if the need were apparent.

Drought, unfortunately, is part of Australia’s climatic make-up. The resilience of Australian farmers and their commitment to survive under the most difficult economic and seasonal conditions is well understood. The real price of drought can, unfortunately, never be felt by anyone who has not suffered or experienced it. It tears at the very soul of farmers and farming communities, and the impact of climate goes far beyond sound management and commonsense. There are many Australians in rural areas who know the pain that I am talking about. As I have said, I am a farmer in north-western New South Wales and for the last few years we have had a very difficult time.

Governments cannot make it rain, but they can address the needs of the farming community in an intelligent, empathetic and generous way. Our government has certainly attempted to do this consistently since we came to office in 1996, and particularly as the 2001 dry took a grip over much of southern and eastern Australia.

While there are some encouraging signs that the drought may be breaking, it will require some years of above-average rainfall for the watertable to be recharged. And the publicity that is given to the current crisis in the Murray-Darling has made it clear to even the most urbanised Australians that we have a real water problem in this country—a problem which the government is responding to, of course, with its $11 billion package, which is essentially about using our water with greater accountability and with greater recognition of its value.

As I have said, we must be positive and hope that the skies will soon open to provide relief for the more than 50 per cent of agricultural land across Australia which remains drought-declared. I think I am right in recalling that, as of earlier this week, that now includes the whole of Victoria.

It is vitally important that we support all agriculture in these times of need, because we cannot risk failure. This would lead to a decreased production of food and fibre within Australia, and this would mean that as a nation we would have to import more than we do already—and we would certainly diminish our export potential.

The farm contribution may be only around three per cent of GDP but, in terms of overall employment, export earnings and the way we think about ourselves as an agricultural superpower, the farm sector remains incredibly important to our economic and social wellbeing. As a nation we currently produce over four times more than we can consume and it is economically vital that we continue to grow our export industries as we move into more sophisticated trading arrangements, including FTAs when they are in Australia’s best economic interests.

I commend the Australian government for its contribution to assisting not only those farmers struggling through this drought but also the small businesses in our rural communities, which those of us who come from rural communities understand. We hope that they will be able to access this EC assistance. As at 9 March 2007, the Australian government had provided $1.4 billion directly to Australian farmers since the drought began in 2001. We have committed to providing more than $2.1 billion, but I do not imagine for one moment that, whatever is needed to move forward, the government will forget its farmers and its farming communities, who are reliant on each other. This assistance has helped over 60,000 farm families and has meant that these families have been able to stay in the region and continue farming. The government has also run initiatives such as the drought bus, an excellent initiative which took counsellors and Centrelink drought officers directly to farmers.

This bill recognises the financial hardships of all businesses in our rural and regional communities and that the viability of many agriculturally dependent small businesses is highly dependent on the viability of farm businesses. To confirm what this legislation does—and from the indications given by Senator O’Brien and Senator Siewert I know it will pass—the Farm Household Support Amendment Bill 2007 will allow small businesses to access the same exceptional circumstances assistance that is already provided to the farming sector. This includes EC relief payments and ancillary benefits such as the healthcare card and concessions under the Youth Allowance and Austudy means tests. It is a useful piece of legislation. It meets an undertaking that we made to regional communities. I commend the legislation’s finetuning of the assistance provided to the rural community and I will conclude by saying the government will continue to do whatever it can to soften the impact of the worst drought in our history.