Drought Assistance

Hansard ID: HANSARD-1323879322-102921

Hansard session: Fifty-Sixth Parliament, First Session (56-1)

Drought Assistance

Mr JAI ROWELL (Wollondilly) (18:11:39):

I support the farmers of Wollondilly and the Southern Highlands, New South Wales, and all of Australia. Six weeks ago in this place I spoke about the plight of our farmers and called for the New South Wales Government to see what it could do to fund further support for the farmers. I am pleased that the Government has listened to my and other community calls for assistance and provided an additional $500 million to support farmers. A key issue was to provide transport subsidies that will enable farmers to transport fodder, which is costly if it is coming from interstate. The total investment by the New South Wales Government towards drought assistance is now more than $1 billion. This problem is bigger than that but it is an historic investment by any State Government across Australia.

The Federal Government has recently committed $190 million to drought relief, but as this drought worsens and as I travel throughout my electorate and community spending time with farmers, whether cattle, sheep, places such as Cedar Creek orchard, or cropping farmers, they are doing it tough. There is no rain on the horizon, which means there will be no summer crop and at least another 12 months before we see better times. I call on all levels of government, local, State and Federal, to do more. Local councils could provide council rate waivers. The Federal Government could follow the lead of the State Government and commit more money. I will quickly read a letter that I received from somebody I went to school with, which defines the issues being experienced by our farmers.. Her niece is part of the farming family. This letter is from her niece, who is desperate to help save her family and their dairy farm. They are campaigning to get that help. She writes:

Mr Rowell, I have emailed your office and just want to let you know of the issues that we are having. I am a dairy farmer's daughter writing this letter at some crazy hour in the morning because I am trying to figure out a way to help my parents before it is too late and one of them takes their own life from not being able to feed our cattle, pay the bills or even put a meal on the table. Farmers are trying to reach out to the government to pull a generous heart string and we hope they have. Farmers are the toughest people you will meet, they never ask for help because they always want to find a way to keep battling on.

That is certainly true. She continues:

It has come to a stage that we can no longer survive without help. My parents work long, 14- and 16-hour days seven days a week. I couldn't tell you the last time they had a day off. My dad is a fourth generation dairy farmer and they have never struggled as much as they are right now. My grandparents were getting paid more for milk in 1999 before deregulation came in, compared to my parents who are being paid less for their milk in 2018. With the increasing cost of feed, fertiliser, electricity and other farm expenses it is impossible to pay the farm bills or at least break even, and the current milk price isn't helping. The love and passion my dad has for dairy farming and his cows inspires myself, my two younger sisters and my younger brother. If the milk price does not improve and the drought remains, whilst the cost to produce milk continues to rise, we will not have a future generation to supply Australia with fresh, quality milk. Animals are starving to death and our farmers have no other option but to put them down. Our country needs help.

I will paraphrase because I only have a minute left. The letter continues:

My dad's phone constantly rings with people asking when the bills will be paid. To see my dad get off the phone and hang his head and say, "I can't promise anyone anything right now" makes me feel awful. The last few years I don't think there has been a day goes by where my parents haven't talked about their financial issues or how they are going to pay for the next load of hay or grain.

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The letter goes on for a number of pages. Our farmers are doing it incredibly tough. I am pleased that the State Government has come to the party. As this issue worsens, I call on the Government to do more in the future, and I know we will. The Wollondilly and Southern Highlands community has been fantastic in supporting our local farmers with organisations such as the Dilly Drought Drive. I know that Charles Alder, the CEO of Rural Aid, has had a meeting with them to see what support they can offer. I acknowledge the Lions Club of Tahmoor, our Rotary clubs and the Southern Highlands Drought ReliefI could go on and on about the different groups in my electorate that have put together ways to help our farmers. We need to do more. I thank the community for the help that they have provided.

Mr MARK COURE (Oatley) (18:16:57):——

I thank the member for Wollondilly for raising these issues in the House today. As we know, we live in one of the driest countries on the planet. There will always be farmersif not in New South Wales, then in Queensland or other parts of Australiawho will need assistance. Over the past two years the Government has delivered $1 billion in drought assistance, money that is used to feed animals and to help and assist families on the farms. This funding has been backed up by the Federal Government's announcement. Last Friday it announced where much-needed funding will go to families throughout Australia. The provision of our transport, water and food subsidies will make a big difference. I thank John Morgan, the President of the Oatley Lions Club in my electorate, who today is doing bucket collections to raise much-needed funding for families in need of help