Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The devastating drought is having an impact on rural and regional Australia, particularly south-west Queensland and western and north-western New South Wales, at the present time. It's good to be able to enter this debate to again highlight this very devastating drought. I'm always pleased to follow my Queensland colleagues, and I'm pleased that Senator Ketter made reference to those who are doing so much to try to help those in difficult circumstances by donations of food and money and other support across a wide range of organisations. I won't repeat them.

Senator O'Sullivan, of course, is one of perhaps only two senators—perhaps Senator Williams as well—who really understands farming. Senator O'Sullivan really understands western Queensland and south-western Queensland. I know that Senator Williams, who has just joined us, knows what it's like in the drought-affected areas of New South Wales.

The government has responded to this calamity as the government always does. I've been in this parliament a long time now, and there are any number of regrettably too-much-occurring droughts in this country, but the government will always step up to help those in real need. I was delighted that the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, with Senator O'Sullivan and with the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Mr Littleproud, whose electorate encompasses much of the south-western Queensland area that is drought affected, recently visited there.

New initiatives were announced by the government, which has invested almost $1.3 billion in delivering support to farmers since 2013, when this government came into power. Just recently we announced an extra—and I emphasise extra—farm household allowance payment of $12,000 to recipients. This brings the total payment for a couple to around $37,000 and for a single to around $22,000. That will apply shortly, subject to passage through the parliament. The farm household assistance income test threshold has been increased from $2.6 million to $5 million net, and that's again effective from later this year. Both of these supplementary payments and the threshold increases apply while a review of the whole farm household assistance program is undertaken.

I mention in this very short debate an extra $5 million to go to the Rural Financial Counselling Service to cover increased demands. Importantly, droughts and natural calamities always play very big in the mental health of those affected, and the government has provided an $11.4 million package towards mental health, including an Empowering Communities program; removing face-to-face consultation requirements to allow farmers who need additional support to access Medicare's Better Access through telehealth; and a youth awareness-raising initiative in drought-affected communities. We're also investing some $15 million in the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal to facilitate small-scale grants to not-for-profit community groups to address immediate community needs in drought-affected areas.

These announcements made recently by the government bring the government's current commitment to farmers in drought to $576 million, and, as the Prime Minister made clear, we're not done yet. Managing this drought requires agility, and we will continue to review the measures that need to be taken.

Senator Ketter spoke about a $20 million regional economic fund. It's good that the Labor Party are at last following the government in helping rural and regional communities. Our Drought Communities Program facility has worked in the past. I was recently in Julia Creek. Julia Creek, fortuitously, is not in drought just at the moment, but it was a few years ago. This money was given not to the farmers but to the community, and they built some very, very interesting tanks that you can sit in that bring tourists to Julia Creek, would you believe. They're too difficult to explain, but it's a wonderful initiative of the McKinlay Shire Council. Congratulations to the mayor and her councillors on using that drought communities funding so well to help communities and the workforce in their communities.

It is unfortunate that the Greens always continue to try to make political capital out of drought. Senator Ketter even mentioned that the Queensland Farmers' Federation were talking about climate change. As Senator O'Sullivan pointed out, there are crabs from 15,000 years ago in the backyards of properties near Longreach. Once upon a time the centre of Australia was covered in rainforest, so clearly the climate's changing. Nobody denies that. You've only got to look back through history; the world was once covered in ice and snow. Clearly, the climate has changed all along, but unfortunately the Greens continue to try to make political capital out of that. I despair at that and condemn them for it.

We need to try to drought proof the country—you'll never do that—by getting some more water storages in the country. Regrettably, the Greens political party won't let the state governments—in my case, the Labor government of Queensland, who are only in power because of Greens preferences—actually build dams. The coalition, the federal government, have funded feasibility studies. We've encouraged the Rookwood Weir. Regrettably, the Labor government because of pressure from the Greens political party feels that it cannot enter into these drought-mitigating measures.

Australia could be much better prepared for droughts if there were some additional storage. I'm fortunate. I live in the Burdekin delta, where we have the Burdekin Falls Dam built by the Fraser government. In Emerald, we have the Fairbairn Dam, another coalition government initiative. We need more of those to try to help people through these difficult times. But, until we can get that, this government will continue to make funds available to give every assistance possible to help drought-affected families get through their days.