Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

Over the past few weeks, I've spent quite a lot of time in places like Echuca and Wang and Shepparton, with Sam Kekovich, and Sale, Warrnambool and Morwell. The last time I was in Morwell was about 30 years ago, in a paddy wagon—that was interesting. I've learned about the green drought. I've learned a lot of what the farmers are up against. They claimed that the assets test from the federal government was too low and too hard. It has been lifted, of course, from $2.6 million to $5 million now. A lot of them were not aware of that.

I hope that the Victorian government will take on what the New South Wales government has done, and that is offering interest-free loans to farmers. Droughts are cyclical, and this one has been going for five years. Droughts in farming life are cyclical. I hope that the federal government will also consider that law for interest-free loans. To be fair, some farmers and especially their wives said: 'We don't want any more loans. We're drowning in debt. We don't need any more.' But at least, over seven years, it gives them time to decide what they're going to do, whether their family is going to take over the farm, whether they're going to stay on the farm and what's going to happen.

I agree with Senator Ketter that it should be the farmers' right to get the $12,000 now, if they want it all now, rather than $6,000 now and $6,000 later. I was surprised that people scoffed at the fact that it seemed such a measly amount of money, but at least the farmers I talked to were pretty happy about getting some money to pay for some food.

The other thing I think we have to look at is getting water from reservoirs in the affected states so we can try to anticipate or at least prepare for a better way for the next drought, because they do come and they will keep coming.

I want to also thank Woolies and Bunnings for what they have done for the farmers. The young boy you mentioned with his 'A fiver for a Farmer' is terrific. The Buy a Bale scheme is terrific. Farnham and his concert will be terrific. But the things we have to look at are getting the money to the farmers as fast as we can. You've seen that the price that they're selling their animals for at the moment has dropped. I think I saw one time that it was $2,000, suddenly dropping to $150 or something like that.

I was, as you always are, impressed by their resilience, by the backbone of the Australian farmers. I just hope that everybody in the city—and we are becoming more aware of it—gets behind it, puts some money into it and tries to help the farmers out and that we get somewhere.