Drought Assistance; Ethanol

Radio Interview with John Laws

Transcript - Radio 2UE, Condobolin, NSW - 10 October 2002

LAWS: Good morning, Simon.

CREAN: John, how are you?

LAWS: I'm fine. Why did you choose now to go and have a look at what's happened out there?

CREAN: Well, I've been [inaudible] for the last three days. There were a few other things to do before this, but I thought it was important to get out here and see first-hand how it was impacting. I visited this area last time it was in severe drought, and developed a drought policy.

The frustration is that it's not being applied quickly enough to get some much-needed assistance to …

LAWS: No, I was just talking about it. This was announced, the financial assistance was announced back on September 19, but they've had some sort of bureaucratic problem, wouldn't you know. And now the payments still haven't been made, but I think they should arrive this week.

CREAN: Well, we hope so and we'll be asking about it next week in the Parliament. But there's just no excuse for why that sort of payment should be held up. I've called for it to be made retrospective so that at least people who have been waiting around for that time can get a bit of a lump sum associated with it. But they do need the assistance, and it's just crazy that …

LAWS: Yeah, well, I think they've agreed to make it retrospective, back to September 19, so the farmers will be thanking you for that. At least that's something, and they sure need help, don't they.

CREAN: They do, and that's the Farm Household Support, John, but there is also the other assistance that farmers need, and that is to keep their core breeding herds together. And that means feed for them, and we've just got to look at more effective ways by which we can secure their base. The one great thing that you get struck with by the farmers out here is they don't give up.

LAWS: No they don't.

CREAN: They know that things are going to, at some stage, improve. The drought is going to break. But they need support to hang onto their core assets, and we ought to be creative enough to be able to help them do that.

LAWS: Yeah, well I'll tell you what. I just read a piece of correspondence I got from a bloke – I think at Coonamble, I can't remember, I'll have a look in a moment – but St Gregory's School at Campbelltown is taking care of a heifer for him. This bloke is in Coonamble, yeah. His name is Nick Fletcher. I'll just read it to you, Simon.

I just wanted to thank the students at St Gregory's College at Campbelltown, who are helping us through the drought. They've taken one of the best heifers I've ever bred to look after her and make sure that she has the best future a cow can have, having a chance to not be stunted and the ability to have a long breeding life. I still have more if any other school can help.

So you've got schools in the urban areas helping the blokes in the bush. That's not a bad sort of initiative, is it?

CREAN: That's terrific, and there needs to be much more of that partnership. And it think it's a tragedy. When we can't see the governments working in partnership, it's pretty hard to instil that sort of sense into the community. But they do rise to it, and that's important.

LAWS: Yeah. Surely governments should work in partnership on such a serious issue as this, because this can impact, er, Bob Carr was saying that this could well lead us towards a recession.

CREAN: That's right. I mean this is a national issue. This doesn't just affect the areas that are experiencing the drought. This has an impact on the whole of the national economy, on our production, on our exports, on all of the country towns that supply the contracting and the services to the farm sector – all of it impacted. That's why we have to approach it as a whole-of-governments approach. See, the irony in this, John, is that when I was Primary Industries Minister back in '92-'94, I developed a drought package with the States, and all bar one of them were Coalition States. So I was able to get the partnership working. I can't understand why this Federal Government can't work properly and quickly with the State Governments to get much-needed assistance out to farmers.

LAWS: Well, I can only assume they don't want to.

CREAN: Well, we've got to make them. And I think this visit has been pretty important in getting Warren Truss to do the back flip and say that he'll get assistance out there quickly. Let's see if he holds to his word this time, because he told us in Parliament over three weeks ago the money would be available. If you come out here, you find people so frustrated that they either get the wrong form or they get told that, no the forms haven't been issued. They just get the run-around.

LAWS: Yeah, they do.

CREAN: They want assistance, not excuses.

LAWS: There are people out there who haven't got drinking water.

CREAN: Yeah, that's right. I mean there are people who haven't got food on the table, because they can't afford it. They've got no income coming in, so we have to do everything possible to assist them.

LAWS: Okay. Is there anything you can do that hasn't already been tried, though?

CREAN: Well, obviously speeding up the Farm Household Support. That was a scheme that was put in place by us. But I think the other thing that's interesting to look at, John, is these interest subsidies. They were arrangements that used to apply under the Exceptional Circumstance conditions, where they could get up to 100per cent interest subsidy if the farm was still viable.

Now this goes back to the point I was talking about before. There's been significant de-stocking of the herd so that they can carry their critical mass, but they need to get feed to them. And we've got to look at ways in which financial assistance can be given to those farmers to help them keep the herds alive so that when the drought breaks they've got a core breeding capacity to get back into production. And that's the business assistance side of the package. The package that I put together back in '94 has been eroded over the years. I think we've got to look again at what sort of initiatives have to be reintroduced. But if we work together, we can solve this problem. And that's what I want to see.

LAWS: Yep, I think we'd all like to se that. You're at Condobolin, aren't you?

CREAN: Yes, we're just on our way out to one of the properties south of Condobolin.

LAWS: So you're on a mobile?

CREAN: Yeah, I'm on a CDMA mobile John, so we had to stop on the side of the road because it kept cracking up.

LAWS: Yeah well that's what I wanted to ask you. Has it improved out there or not?

CREAN: Well it's there in patches but, I mean, this comes back to the old argument about the so-called Telstra services in the bush. I mean, you still hear the Government saying it wants to sell because services have improved. No one out here believes that.

LAWS: No, that's the feeling we're getting. Let's hope they keep working at in anyway.

Just quickly on to the ethanol issues, because I know you're on the move and probably want to start moving again. Some service stations are selling fuel with up to 20per cent ethanol. Now you and I, I think, are in total unison on this. You like the idea of ethanol but there needs to be some sort of mandatory limit, doesn't there?

CREAN: That's right. It has to be a 10per cent limit, and it has to be disclosed on the products sold. I haven't got any objection to ethanol being blended, but it shouldn't be blended above 10per cent, and people should know that the blend is there when they buy it. Now all of those manufacturers, all the automotive manufactures have warned that the warranty on the engine can be voided for anything over 10per cent. To not put the limit on is negligence. It's putting motorists' cars at risk, with no warning. It's outrageous.

LAWS: Well I think it's outrageous, and now they're encountering problems with it. You know ethanol should be used. I think that there should be a compulsory 10per cent of ethanol one day. If that day ever comes I would be happy, because it's good for the environment. But we shouldn't let people use it just as a rip-off. And that's what they're doing, and put 20per cent in, and destroy the engines.

CREAN: Yeah, destroy the engines. And particularly where all of this warning has been here to the Government. Now you've exposed it on your program. We've exposed it in the Parliament. The Prime Minister's given no satisfactory answers, and here we have advice coming to the Government that says anything over 10per cent is dangerous. You've got the automotive manufacturers saying engine warranties can be voided. The Government has to act, and we will be again raising it next week when Parliament resumes.

LAWS: Why won't they act, Simon?

CREAN: Well I think, this is what we've been trying to get to. It's very interesting when you look at the circumstances. We've released minutes of a discussion that the Prime Minister is supposed to have said through Warren Truss, that anything that hurts Manildra and Dick Honan we're not going to do. Now we've been asking questions about that. The Prime Minister's been avoiding it. Now, I think it's an interesting question as to why they're not doing it. But the most important question is, we've got to insist they do it, because motorists' engines are being put at risk through failure to cap it at 10per cent and failure to disclose the contents.

LAWS: Why do you believe that the Prime Minister might be saying he doesn't want to do anything that would hurt Manildra or Dick Honan?

CREAN: Well that's what we want to find out from him, John, and we'll keep asking the questions.

LAWS: Okay. I'll let you get on with it. Thank you very much for your time, and our good wishes go to the farmers. I'm sure you're doing your best out there. Let's hope we can get some cooperation from the Federal Government with the States.

CREAN: Okay John, that's what we're aiming for, so good to talk to you.

LAWS: Good to talk to you, Simon. Bye.

ENDS