Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Farm Household Support Amendment (Relief Measures) Bill (No. 1) 2019. Here we go again: debating changes to make it easier for our farmers to access financial support during times of hardship and, in the current circumstances, the drought. It is important for the Senate to note that some farmers and rural communities are going into the ninth year of drought on the eastern seaboard. The current drought is being spoken of as the worst drought in our history, at least since the time of European settlement.

It's not just our farmers who are hurting, but also people in rural communities everywhere. The drought is having an adverse effect on the economies in rural towns. When farmers have no income, then businesses in the towns suffer. This means that there's less employment and that everyone is impacted. There are towns in Australia that are facing the confronting prospect of running out of water. These are places like Stanthorpe, a significant horticultural region in Australia and one of our top five national producers of apples and summer-grown strawberries. Stanthorpe usually produces almost 75 per cent of the eastern states' tomatoes and capsicums, and it grows significant amounts of stone fruit, summer vegetables and wine grapes. Sadly, because of water shortages, planting and production of these crops have been drastically reduced.

The reduced economic activity in the horticulture sector alone is estimated at $100 million for the 2019-20 financial year. Stanthorpe is only one example of many towns dealing with the same challenges. They are losing skilled workers, and the Morrison government is offering very little hope. Even big communities, like Tamworth, Armidale and Murrurundi, all in the member for New England's electorate, are all too close to running out of water. In fact, Murrurundi did run out of water some time ago.

Of course, many of these communities are also suffering at the hands of terrible bushfires, and our thoughts are with those communities. This is the reality Australia is facing due to the function of a changing climate—a hotter climate, a drier climate, a climate which is causing high temperatures earlier in the year than we would normally expect and a climate which over time has produced a lot of unspent fuel sources in and around these communities. These communities are also facing extreme hailstorms, late frosts and massive dust storms. How farmers will manage these challenges in the future needs to be better understood. Challenging conversations need to be had. As stated earlier, Stanthorpe alone is expected to lose $100 million in economic activity. This is why the Morrison government's Future Drought Fund is confusing to most farmers. One hundred million dollars won't go far. Whilst extra funding into research is a good thing, everything this government is doing is moving too slowly—it is reactionary—and many farmers feel abandoned.

The bill currently before the Senate increases the maximum time a person is able to access the farm household allowance program from four years over their lifetime to four years in each specified 10-year period. It also introduces an expanded off-farm income offset, broadening the circumstances in which the offset can be applied and increasing the upper limit from $80,000 to $100,000. It introduces a one-off lump sum payment for recipients who have exhausted 1,460 days of the allowance by 1 July 2020, and the capacity for the minister's rules to prescribe further lump sum payments if required.

The amendments seem reasonable until they are looked at in detail. The maximum time on payment is currently set at a cumulative 1,460 days or four years over a person's lifetime. The bill expands access to the allowance program for eligible farmers and their partners to four years in every specified 10-year period, recognising that farmers can face more than one period of hardship in their lifetime. The next specified 10-year period will commence on 1 July 2024, meaning that, if you are a farmer who has been cut off the farm household allowance program, you can reapply in almost five years. Good luck to farmers currently still facing extreme drought conditions.

The expanded income offset provisions in the bill will increase the maximum offset amount from $80,000 to $100,000 per couple per financial year. This will allow the household allowance recipients, or couples where applicable, who have incurred a farm business loss to have their income reduced by $100,000 under the household allowance income test. This is an acknowledgement that many farmers need to obtain off-farm income. However, due to the challenges of living in rural and regional Australia, particularly in drought-affected areas, this amendment is modest in nature.

Sadly, many farmers were dismayed when the former agriculture minister, on 12 October, told farmers that they should need to seriously think: what are you doing with your life? His exact words were:

People who have not made a profit in the last 10 years really need to seriously think, what are you doing with your life? What are you doing on the land?

It's almost hard to find the right words to describe what type of politician would be so cruel to say this to farmers who are doing their best in extremely challenging circumstances but maybe it's best not to use the possible language that comes to mind in the chamber.

Now we get to the amendment that lacks coherent policy rationale and has left many farmers confused as to what they can expect over the coming 12 months and beyond. I want to touch on the relief payment, which is schedule 3. For those farm household allowance recipients who have been payable for 1,460 days of payment by 30 June 2020 inclusive, the bill provides for a one-off lump sum payment of $7,500 for a single recipient or $6,500 for a recipient who is a member of a couple, meaning couples receive $13,000. Additionally, schedule 3 provides the minister with a power to determine who may qualify for and the amount of future relief payments, meaning the government has left room to provide further lump sum payments to drought-affected farmers.

So what does this amendment actually mean for farmers in a practical sense? We know there are currently over 600 farmers who have been cut off the FHA and, for the past five months, have been expected to survive with no financial assistance from the Morrison government. Farmers and their partners will only receive the lump sum payment once this bill passes and then Centrelink process the payments. This could take another couple of weeks. Keep in mind that these farmers, who have not received any payments for almost six months, will receive a lump sum and then nothing again, except if the agriculture minister or ministers decide that maybe these farmers need assistance in the future.

How long will these farmers and their partners have to wait? Nobody knows. Under what circumstances will another lump sum be put on the table? Once again, nobody knows. This is a cruel policy decision by the Morrison government, supported, unfortunately, by the Nationals—that once strong, representative country party who no longer are. Farmers and their families need certainty. The Prime Minister; the Minister for Agriculture, Senator McKenzie; the Deputy Prime Minister; and the Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management need to be honest with those who are on farm household allowance. Will they continue to be supported, or should they take the advice of Senator McKenzie in her media release of 17 October? Senator McKenzie said:

A one-off drought relief payment of up to $13,000 for a farming family, and up to $7,500 for an individual is designed to help people determine whether they will be sustainable, should look at succession options or, in some instances choose to sell.

I stress the intentional language that it was a one-off drought relief payment, but there has been a bit of backpedalling since that media release.

Of course, the minister's fellow senior minister Mr Littleproud, the minister for drought, appears to think that no farmers would be kicked off the government's drought assistance payment after they had exhausted the four-year time limit. It appears that both senior ministers are confused by their legislation, and Minister McKenzie must clarify what farmers who have already been cut off FHA can expect. The minister should also acknowledge that many farmers and their families currently are receiving no financial assistance to put food on the table and pay basic bills.

Labor will be supporting the legislation before the Senate so as not to delay relief payments, but it urges the Morrison government to do a better job of understanding how its policies are impacting drought-affected farmers across Australia. On that, as I said, we will be supporting the bill. We want to get it through asap.