Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

In the short time I have before question time I will also begin my contribution in which I rise to speak on the Future Drought Fund Bill 2019 and the Future Drought Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2019 and support the amendment moved by Senator Gallagher. I want to make clear that Labor supports all and any actions being taken to support drought-affected farmers and communities. In fact we have supported all recent and immediate drought measures put forward by first the Abbott government, then the Turnbull government and more recently the Morrison government, but these bills are not putting forward any real solutions. The government has had plenty of opportunities to bring forward real funding to support farmers and their communities. Indeed Labor have said time and again that we will support a special appropriation for drought support. We actually want to see this government provide some real funding for drought support.

But after six years of wasted opportunities this government is only making our farmers and our rural and regional communities wait even longer for investments. Despite all the bravado that these bills must be passed this week, guess when the money is actually going to flow from this fund? It will be at least a year. Not one cent can flow until 1 July 2020 at the earliest. This urgent fund to relieve droughts across Australia is so urgent that at the very earliest funds won't flow from it for at least 12 months—not next week, not next month, nor even January next year. So much for being an urgent drought package—the glacial pace with which this government moves.

Only on 1 July next year when we finally get around to the point that funds can actually be distributed from this drought fund, which we have been hearing over and over again is a $5 billion drought fund, guess how much money will be provided from this allegedly $5 billion drought fund? It will be only $100 million per year first for the 2020-21 financial year and then only another $100 million available for the following financial year. That's it: a $5 billion urgent drought fund that won't kick in for at least 12 months and even then will provide only $100 million a year—all this rush for $200 million over two years.

If the Morrison government were serious about assisting our farmers, real money would be on the table right now and real projects would be underway. That's what Labor would like to see happen. As the shadow minister for northern Australia and the shadow minister for natural disaster and emergency management, in addition to being a Queensland senator, I know well the effects of drought and have been devastated at what can only be described as the lack of action from this government over the past six years. Under a mirage of appearing to finally do something on the drought, this government is now rushing through these bills that will abolish the $3.9 billion Building Australia Fund, which is actually designed to build infrastructure in rural and regional communities, including those that are affected by drought, as well as in our cities and has been in place for many years since the last federal Labor government established it.

That Building Australia Fund set up by Labor, which is now being raided by the government because it's not prepared to make a special allocation to support farmers and rural communities, has built infrastructure like the Ipswich Motorway in Queensland, the Hunter Expressway in New South Wales, the Pacific Highway Kempsey bypass in New South Wales and the Regional Rail Express in Victoria and has fixed NBN blackspots throughout regional Australia. They are the kinds of projects that have previously been funded through the Building Australia Fund under the last Labor federal government. The Building Australia Fund is a $3.9 billion fund that this government has failed to draw on, failed to access and failed to utilise, even though it can support projects in drought affected communities across—