Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is supporting the Farm Household Support Amendment (Temporary Measures) Bill 2018 and the government amendment to its own bill. The bill will allow eligible farm household allowance recipients to receive a supplement payment of up to $12,000 and will increase the farm asset limit from $2.6 million to $5 million. These are temporary measures, because the government has finally decided to review the farm household allowance, something that Labor believes should have been done a long time ago.

The Senate should also note that Labor is disappointed that the Turnbull government rejected in the other chamber proposed Labor amendments to this bill which would have given struggling farmers the opportunity to receive the farm household allowance supplement payment as a $12,000 lump sum. To be clear: this amendment was put by Labor in the other chamber but rejected by the government. The reality is that many farmers won't have access to cash payments for up to 10 weeks. During this time, daily living expenses and debt will continue to accumulate. Farmers should be given the option of receiving the supplement payment as a lump sum. They need this money and they need it now.

The current drought has been severe in many parts of the country, and there are farming families who desperately need assistance with putting food on the table, paying school fees and other important daily living expenses. There's no logic or rationale behind this system of split payments on 1 September 2018 and 1 March 2019 that the government has constructed. Contrary to Mr Turnbull's comments to David Koch on Sunrisethat 'March is not that far away'—Labor is fully aware that farmers need cash assistance as soon as possible. Labor supported all the drought measures that the government has put forward and is not seeking to politicise assistance to our farmers; however, Labor remains concerned that the current government is more interested in looking after itself than in assisting our farmers.