Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor will be supporting this bill. As outlined in the EM, the purpose of the bill is to 'waive the repayment of certain classes of debt in relation to the Farm Household Allowance Program, through amendments to the Farm Household Support Act 2014':

The FHA program provides time-limited, means-tested income support to farmers and their partners experiencing financial hardship. Farmers are eligible for the FHA for a maximum of 4 years (recorded as a 1,460 day clock) in every 10 year period (beginning 1 July 2014). The days do not need to be consecutive and can be taken only if, and when needed.

The EM states:

Previously, FHA recipients' income estimate was reconciled annually through a process called business income reconciliation (BIR).

…

The BIR determined whether a recipient received a 'top up' payment, no adjustment or incurred a debt. The BIR was removed from the FHS Act with effect from 1 July 2020 as part of a process to simplify the FHA following a 2018 independent review. While the BIR was removed in 2020, some FHA recipients incurred debts from this process between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2020 or have not yet been assessed.

According to the EM:

The Bill would permanently waive the repayment of certain classes of debts for FHA recipients arising from the BIR process for FHA payments between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2020.

The bill would assist farmers suffering financial hardship and eliminate the negative effects of the business income reconciliation process. The EM states:

To enhance fairness it would ensure that an FHA recipient who already has a BIR debt does not also receive the double benefit of having their clock re-credited if they choose to have their debt waived.

As stated in the EM:

The Bill would also provide an end date of 30 June 2023 for FHA recipients to supply their full financial statements for the BIR process. Any FHA recipients who do not provide this information would have their payment for the full financial year raised as a debt …

BIR debts for the 2014-15 financial year were previously waived through a legislative instrument in 2016 … and would not be affected by these amendments.

I want to take this opportunity to put on record the challenges facing farmers in regional communities. The Morrison government's inaction on many of these issues is very concerning. They are big on announcement, but unfortunately there is not a lot on delivery. Last week we had another big announcement, the agriculture workers visa, but not a lot of detail on the delivery. This latest announcement comes three years after the Nationals first said there would be an agriculture visa, so farmers won't be holding their breath for action soon. With Morrison's faltering vaccine rollout and quarantine failures set to keep borders closed for the foreseeable future, it's difficult to see how any new visa will fix the labour shortages crippling Australia's farmers now. The Morrison government must come clean with more details. Any proposed visa cannot mean more shocking exploitation of workers on farms. The Morrison government has a terrible track record on fixing workforce shortages on Australian farms. Mr Morrison is still yet to respond to the recommendations of the National Agriculture Workforce Strategy that were handed to the government in October. Producers have already faced losses of more than $50 million from rotting crops due to workforce shortages on farms. The Morrison government has failed to take responsibility for labour shortages. Farmers just want this fixed.

The Morrison government is also dragging its feet on the challenges farmers face around biosecurity. Further reducing confidence was the recent publication of the Australian National Audit Office audit report on biosecurity. The findings of the ANAO report are scathing and extremely concerning. The ANAO concludes that the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment's arrangements to respond to noncompliance with biosecurity requirements are largely inappropriate. Clearly we do not have a fit-for-purpose biosecurity system. What does this say about the Morrison government's interest in biosecurity risk? The ANAO's findings in relation to the inadequacy of Australia's biosecurity system must be taken seriously. A biosecurity system that is deemed to be inappropriately managed has massive implications for the agriculture sector and it puts Australian farmers in a very vulnerable position, which is totally unacceptable. Incursions of pests and disease are of great concern to farmers, who know the significant risks if and when Australia's biosecurity system fails them. The Morrison government must do better for the agriculture sector when it comes to Australia's biosecurity system.

On top of bushfires, drought, the COVID-19 pandemic and the workforce shortage, we know another crisis that farmers in regional communities have had to face, and that's the mouse plague. The mouse plague is now impacting across multiple states. Is there a national response from the Morrison government? No, there is no national response. Labor's call for a national response plan has been ignored. The New South Wales agriculture minister also wrote to the Morrison government asking it to provide assistance with the mouse plague. The New South Wales minister's request for a national response plan has been ignored. Labor is concerned about the impact the plague is having and will continue to have across Australian farms. NSW Farmers have estimated that the plague has already cost $1 billion in lost winter crops. The Morrison government must do better to help farmers.

In closing: we will keep a close eye on how the Morrison government continues to manage its changes in this legislation and the other concerns I've raised today.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week the Federal Court backed the people who were affected by robodebts. It handed down its judgement on the robodebt class action that found that the Commonwealth unlawfully raised $1.7 billion in debts against 443,000 people. In his judgement, Justice Murphy criticised the federal government's massive failure and said that the court heard 'heart-wrenching' stories of pain and anguish from victims of the Centrelink debt recovery program. Justice Murphy said it should have been obvious to government ministers and senior public servants that the debt-raising method central to the system was flawed. He said:

The proceeding has exposed a shameful chapter in the administration of the Commonwealth social security system and a massive failure of public administration.

The bill we are dealing with today will waive the Farm Household Allowance debts of 5,300 farmers and their partners. It will waive $51 million in income support debts. I will say right now that the Greens think that farmers and people in regional areas should be supported by the government and that these debts should be waived. However, the point I'm making is that the stark contrast between the way people on other income support payments were treated through the disgusting robodebt disaster and the appropriate way that people with debts through the Farm Household Allowance are now being treated should be blindingly obvious to anyone. The difference between the ways the two groups have been handled is startlingly obvious.

Of course, we support those people with Farm Household Allowance debts. We support this bill. The government argues that the waiver is appropriate for farmers because they were acting in 'good faith'. If only the government gave other people on income support even some of that benefit of the doubt. It's truly outrageous when you compare the different approaches. When it came to robodebt, income support recipients were assumed guilty, simply for being on income support. There was none of this government's presumption-of-innocence approach. The government pursued people for debts they did not owe when the government should have known—if they didn't know—that it was illegal. Now the government doesn't want to hand over the documents, the evidence, that tell the community when and what they knew, and who knew.

It is almost impossible to account for the social and economic costs of the government's punitive robodebt program. This program has caused so much pain and distress to so many for so long. The government knew this and continued it anyway, treating people appallingly. This program literally cost people's lives, it ruined many others and it caused so much pain and anguish. This is a shameful chapter in our history. People should not be treated this way. I'm glad the government has seen the light, and I encourage them to apply it to everybody who is on income support.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens support the principle of helping struggling farmers. Of course we support the principle of helping any Australian who's in need. We support the principle of government playing a strong and active role in our lives.

I want to briefly highlight a few points from the second reading speech of Minister Michael Sukkar from the other place, because it's very obvious when you read the minister's speech and he goes on to explain why farmers are having their debts waived, why they need the relief. He says that, 'Farming income is volatile.' I know there are senators in this chamber who are from farming families, and, as I said yesterday, my father was a farmer and, indeed, I've been a farmer myself. So I appreciate that farming income is volatile. I also appreciate what the minister said—that, based on uncertain yields and prices and unpredictable weather, farmers have to make difficult predictions about their income for the year ahead.

I want to underline that bit about unpredictable weather. There has been a big debate this week about climate change being one of the key risks that Australian farmers face. This bill is a recognition of that. This bill is designed primarily to help farmers who have dealt with drought and with floods. The minister said that in the second last paragraph of his second reading speech. Summing up, he said:

Though the quantum of the debts to be waived through this Bill are modest, this measure will provide breathing space as our farming families recover …

Underline 'recover from drought, bushfires and floods. He also mentioned the global pandemic that they've experienced over recent years. There you have it in a nutshell: farmers suffering from drought, bushfires and floods. Could you be any more circumspect about the risks that are facing our farming community? Every farmer knows that the weather and climate are one of the most variable factors that they face in trying to make a living, a sustainable livelihood, working the land to feed the nation, to grow a whole range of different products.

We have in this place a National Party that purports to represent farmers, that has as its new leader an individual, Mr Barnaby Joyce, who openly denies climate change, and others in this chamber, like Senator Canavan, who also are openly on record dismissing the need for climate action. It's no secret that the National Party is hijacking this government, preventing it from putting in place even weak 2050 targets, when all of us who understand climate change, based on the best available science—the whole world knows this—know that we need strong 2030 targets.

I will finish on that point. Without climate action there will be significant costs and risks to farmers. Farmers understand that, and they deserve better. They deserve their representatives in regional areas to take up their case in this place and to take the strongest possible action on climate. The Greens will do that. The Greens will always take the strongest possible action on climate because we understand that doing nothing risks everything. We are going to see a lot more of that in this country in the future if we don't take the necessary climate action on behalf of farmers and, indeed, all our communities across this country.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their contributions and commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.