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

The Farm Household Support Amendment (Relief Measures) Bill (No. 1) 2020 before the house will make two sets of amendments dealing with how income affects farm household allowance recipients. The first set of amendments is to remove the provisions that give rise to business income reconciliation. The second set of amendments is to remove the 28-day time limit for conducting a farm financial assessment.

With regard to the first amendment, the minister's speech explained that that bill removes provisions that currently require FHA recipients to reconcile the prediction of annual income with the actual amount received. Labor understands that for many farmers predicting income can be difficult. Once this legislation passes the parliament an estimate of current income will be used to calculate the rate of payment, and farmers can update the estimates as often as needed during the year; however, if the estimate is incorrect, farmers will not incur a debt at the end of the year through the business income reconciliation process. The government claims that regular sampling of records will be undertaken to ensure the right person received the right payment at the right time. However, the government is seeking to reduce regulatory burden on drought affected farmers.

All members in this place should note that this third-term government could have made this simple change six years ago, but it chose not to act swiftly. This amendment does nothing to assist drought affected farmers who continue to struggle to obtain the FHA payment or, indeed, drought affected farmers who have been kicked off the FHA regardless of whether they continue to face prolonged drought conditions.

The second amendment is another minor amendment which may assist farmers who are seeking to obtain the FHA. The 28-day time period to complete the farm financial assessment should have been removed six years ago. This third-term Liberal-National government should be embarrassed that this is their 14th amendment to the farm household support measure. This is the government—full of rural members—who claim they understand and are working for the benefit of our farmers. However, the fact that this government continue to dribble out minor amendments, to appear like they are acting, is fooling no-one.

Those living with the reality of drought and organisations doing their very best to assist drought affected farmers are disappointed that assistance for farmers has been difficult to obtain. While some farmers have received good rain over the last few weeks and months, there continue to be farmers who are experiencing drought conditions or will need further follow-up rain.

Labor has supported all FHA measures proposed to assist our farmers but is critical of the coalition government's ad hoc approach. Labor has been calling for the Morrison government to undertake a bipartisan approach and develop a national comprehensive drought policy via a drought cabinet. Obviously, the current focus for the nation is the response to the coronavirus, but this cannot be an excuse for our farmers to be forgotten as they work through ongoing challenges. Labor stands ready to work in a constructive and meaningful manner to ensure the long-term sustainable and profitable future of our agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors.