Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Treasury Laws Amendment (North Queensland Flood Recovery) Bill 2019 clarifies that specific disaster recovery grants that relate to flooding between 25 January 2019 and 28 February 2019, primarily in Townsville, are to be exempted from income tax. It clarifies that specific storm assistance payments relating to storm activity on or around 25 October 2018, primarily in the Fassifern Valley in Queensland, are to be exempted from income tax.

It implements an announcement made by the Prime Minister on 1 March 2019 of a loan scheme to provide financial assistance to primary producers affected by the Northern Queensland floods. According to research from the Parliamentary Library, currently under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 grants to businesses are taxable but grants to non-profit organisations are not. The North Queensland floods devastated the primary industries surrounding Townsville. It's estimated that half a million head of livestock were killed during the flood event. Small businesses and households in urban areas have also suffered lingering effects.

The bill will clarify that category C or D disaster recovery grants made under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 to small businesses, primary producers or non-profit organisations within the time period specified are non-assessable, non-exempt income for taxation purposes. The amendments apply to the 2018 financial year and the later financial year for qualifying grants.

The bill will also make grants to primary producers non-assessable, non-exempt income if the grants are for repairing or replacing farm infrastructure, restocking or replanting and if they are made as part of an agreement between the Commonwealth and state or territory governments. This covers agreements entered into between 1 February 2019 and 1 July 2019 that are outside the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018.

Schedule 2 of the bill deals with the damaging storms of 25 October 2018. Those are the storms that hit the towns of Oakey and Boonah in South-East Queensland and in the Fassifern Valley and Darling Downs region. Primary producers in the Fassifern Valley estimated that the hail cost was $10 million worth of damage to crops on more than 20 farms.

The bill makes payments made through the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal—a private, not-for-profit organisation that is based in Bendigo, Victoria—exempt from income tax. The payments have been made by the foundation, under grants totalling $1 million from the Commonwealth, to support primary producers in the Fassifern Valley. The amendments apply to the 2018-19 financial year and later financial years for qualifying grants.

On schedule 3, the Prime Minister on 1 March 2019 announced:

… the Government has offered ADIs low-cost loans which they would be required to pass on to eligible farmers in lower interest rates. This will help those farmers to stabilise their financial position—and is estimated to be worth up to $2 billion.

The bill implements a loan scheme that will see the Commonwealth give a total $1.75 billion in loans to participating authorised deposit-taking institutions. The bill makes a special appropriation for that money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purposes of making loans to financial institutions under the program, known as 'Urgent assistance for eligible primary producers affected by floods in Northern Queensland'. According to the bill's explanatory memorandum, the money will be given to the ADIs as a low-interest loan, which will enable the ADIs in turn to offer low interest on new and existing loans to eligible primary producers. It's estimated that the impact on the underlying cash balance between 2019-20 and 2022-23 will be $0.7 million.

Labor supports this bill. We want to ensure that as much assistance as possible is provided to these communities in North Queensland who have suffered terribly because of the ravages of the floods. This is an extremely important bill. It's a bill that will provide assistance, and that's why Labor supports this bill. We are seeing too many storms, too many floods and too many droughts in this country. The sooner the coalition actually get on with dealing with climate change, the better it will be for this country.