Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Farmers are still the backbone of this country. One Nation and I will continue to fight to make sure farmers who are struggling financially due to the impact of this extended drought get the support they need, the farm household allowance, but the government remains incredibly out of touch with farmers and their needs through these difficult times. Farmers are currently eligible for these farm payments for four years over their lifetime, and the amendments suggest that should be lifted to four years in each specified 10-year period. Longreach, in my state of Queensland, has been in drought for eight years plus, yet the first 10-year period started in 2014. My overwhelming issue with this is that the need for this funding often extends much longer. The eligibility for these FHA payments should be in place for struggling farmers for as long as the drought emergency lasts, whether it's five years, 10 years or longer, or for a period of time until they are deriving a farm income.

The point I've made previously is that we don't put time limits on payments for those receiving Newstart. In fact there are families that have received such payments for generation after generation, yet we allow that to go on with hardly any questions asked. It's worth noting that those receiving Newstart also automatically qualify for the energy supplement, healthcare card, rent assistance, family tax benefit, pharmaceutical allowance, education entry payment, Work for the Dole supplement, pensioner education supplement, remote area allowance and pensioner concession card. These support payments are paid on the basis of need and for the duration of that need, so why not do the same for this desperately needed assistance for farmers?

There has been talk of increasing Newstart, and I support an increase of $50 a fortnight, but I add that the support payment should be suspended for a year for recipients aged under 45 if they don't find a job within two years. Why not? If we are restricting these payments for farmers who are in dire straits, why not for other recipients of similar payments? I believe that concessions could be made for residents in rural and remote areas, due to a shortage of jobs in those communities. Also, those aged over 45 should not be subject to the suspension, due to the difficulty gaining employment for older jobseekers.

It is worth noting that farmers who receive these FHA payments are not just sitting on the couch watching TV or sitting down at the pub, unlike many other welfare recipients who take these payments as a right. The farmers are continuing to work, caring for the cattle, buying fodder, fixing fences, managing weeds and just doing what they can to make ends meet while they wait for the rains that will end the drought. From there they can rebuild their farming operations and their lives.

This problem of the government's failure to truly understand the situation in drought-affected farming communities was underscored even more strongly last week during the drought tour of western Queensland by Bob Katter and I. Farmers raised a number of issues during the trip. While I know that these are mostly state issues, I call on the Prime Minister to help sort them out. The farmers in Charleville had issues with the Queensland Labor government placing harsh limits on the harvesting of mulga on their properties, making it even more difficult to keep their livestock alive. In Roma there were issues with the allowable shooting of kangaroos, which are in plague proportions. One farmer mentioned that he has seen mobs of red kangaroos numbering up to 300. They eat pasture so low to the ground that there is nothing left for the cattle to eat, which is making cattle farming virtually impossible in these areas. At our pub meeting in Cunnamulla, local residents mentioned the problem of council rates, which are often calculated on a property's potential rather than on reality, increasing to the point of being the highest cost faced by struggling property owners. Some have had increases of up to 400 per cent. There were also a number of personal issues that western Queensland residents raised. They feel abandoned by the major political parties and their elected representatives, both state and federal, and feel they are dealing on their own with what is a massive crisis. In terms of physical needs, there is the obvious desperate need for water. While politicians can't make it rain, they can definitely plan for the future and get working to make sure water infrastructure, which lessens the impact of dry weather, is a serious priority. I say to the Prime Minister: failure to address this water infrastructure need will be a poor legacy of your time in the top job.

People in the bush are sick of past rhetoric and past promises. We don't need more feasibility studies. The government recently pledged $1.5 million for a feasibility study for a pipeline between Paradise Dam and Coulstoun Lakes in Queensland. This follows $2 million that was given to the Queensland government for a similar feasibility study 18 months ago, with no report to date. I ask the government: what has happened to that money? What was it used for? During the drought tour it was horrifying to see hundreds of kilometres of good land that is not delivering the crops and livestock it could, and the economic potential that comes with it, solely because of the lack of water. Farmers out west want to see work being done to address their water issues, so I say, 'Put a shovel in the bloody ground and just do it.'

Bob and I worked well together. We shared the shock over how bad conditions are out there, much worse than anyone can know—and it was not my first time out west. I know how tough it is out there, but during this trip I saw the hurt, the pain and the struggle on the faces of the farmers, and their loss of hope that anyone in Canberra actually cares. For many of us in this place it's a case of out of sight, out of mind. We need to make sure that elected representatives actually listen, and that is what Bob and I did. To the media who were expecting some sort of train wreck during our tour: I'm sorry. Many of you were wondering how long the marriage would last. Well, Bob and I were friends before the trip and I think we are stronger friends now. We both vowed to continue raising the issues being faced by our farmers and to push for the government to provide the support they need if they're to continue to provide this vital foundational service to Australia. We think farmers are important and should be supported to make sure they remain on the land.

I'm annoyed that the default position of the government seems to be to tell farmers to reconsider their futures. To me, that sounds like government code for: 'We have no answers. We give up and we want you to give up too.' That comes hot on the heels of a report that Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce suggested farmers who had endured too many years without profits should consider leaving farming. Mr Joyce has been quoted in the media as saying:

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?

I'm not having any of that. Our farmers are the lifeblood of Australia. I'm not going to give up. I'm keeping this important industry alive and thriving. We don't demand that anyone else on government support payments make a so-called decision about their future, so why are we asking farmers to do that as a matter of course? Just because farmers live on properties with considerable farm assets, are they worth less than some welfare recipients?

We grow the best food in the world and we have the best milk and the best livestock, and we are not going to just throw that all away. I call on the PM to clean up our own backyard and look after Australians first before handing out hard-earned taxpayer dollars in foreign aid to other nations, who use us as a milking cow, and addressing climate change demands. I won't be taken for a mug and neither will most other Australians.