Drought Assistance

Radio Interview with Trisha Duffield

Transcript - Radio 2SM, Condobolin - 10 October 2002

DUFFIELD: Now we are going to be talking about the drought. Now I know we've been talking about it a lot, and because we have a lot of rural listeners it's a subject that's very important to us. But it should be important to everyone in New South Wales. I think sometimes we think it's something that is the farmers' deal and something that, you know, we can't do much about. And you know it's one of those things, that's the weather, that's the climate - what can you do?

I think, and some of our community leaders are now saying, it is not a rural issue. It is not even an issue for New South Wales alone. It is actually going to be an issue that's going to affect our economy. There is already talk that this drought could tip Australia into recession.

And one of the people who has been out there looking at what's been going on and talking to farmers with our Premier Bob Carr is Federal Opposition Leader Simon Crean, and he joins us now. Are you there, Simon?

CREAN: Yes I am, Trisha. How are you?

DUFFIELD: Very good. Thank you very much for giving up your time this morning. Now you flew up to northern New South Wales with our Premier yesterday. When you were flying over the landscape, could you see the evidence of the drought? What did you actually see?

CREAN: Actually I came up the day before, and I'm meeting up with the Premier today in Condobolin. I went to Brewarrina yesterday, and the day before we were over in Bourke.

Yes, look, you can see the devastation from the air, but it's more dramatic on the ground. And we spent a lot of time yesterday just visiting properties, talking to farmers, seeing the impact.

DUFFIELD: What are they telling you?

CREAN: Well, they're telling us they need assistance, and they should be getting that assistance, because there's a scheme in place – I put it in place in '92-'94 when I was Primary Industries Minister…

DUFFIELD: Right, I remember when that was announced, when that came into practice.

CREAN: In fact, I was up in Bourke again at that time talking to them. But the frustration that they've got is that there's a scheme in place, but there's no money coming under it. And what is required to happen in this is the State Government triggers the mechanism. They did that over four weeks ago, and the Federal Government has been sitting on its hands. So there's a lot of frustration that the Federal Government is just not releasing the money.

DUFFIELD: What has been the, what have been the, I don't understand. What have been the reasons for that, because I was reading that – are these the welfare payments or are these special drought, these are the drought welfare payments, aren't they, the drought schemes? So what's the hold-up? Is it in terms of qualification for the farmers, or what?

CREAN: It's the Federal Government dragging its feet. The Farm Household Support Scheme is putting food on the tables, Trisha, this is what's needed. This is the immediate relief that's needed, because there's no income stream coming in. So that's one dimension of it. Warren Truss …

DUFFIELD: Sorry, while you're there, just on those farmers. If they're having no income, are they telling you how they were surviving? I mean, how are they, you know, what are some of the stories because, I think, you know, that if we're leaving farmers without any food, I mean any money for sort of real basic items. I mean, it's an outrage. What, is it as serious as that?

CREAN: Well they are. But the truth of it is, Trisha, is that they've very proud people as well and they, sort of, tell of the problem but they're not making a huge issue. But you can get the frustration, and I share the frustration, because I say to them: look, when I was the Primary Industries Minister, this is the mechanism we put in place. The money should be paid immediately, and that's what we've got to put the pressure on.

Now it was interesting yesterday – Warren Truss, who had been dithering on the thing for the past four weeks came back and said: yes, the money would be paid. I called for it to be made retrospective; he's doing that. But I just hope they get this money out to the people quickly, because when you haven't got the money to pay, no one's going to keep extending the credit to you.

DUFFIELD: Absolutely. Now how do they, like do they have to qualify for this, or is there, has there been doubt about the validity of some of the claims, or has it just been bureaucratic sort of red tape? You know, I seriously don't understand how there could be a sort of a four-week delay for payments in such an obvious, we are in drought. You know, 92 per cent of the State is in drought. What can be done about that?

CREAN: That's right. Once the Exceptional Circumstance trigger has been clicked, in other words the State Government has triggered it, it's then up to the Commonwealth to ratify it, if you like, to confirm it. The trouble with them is it's taken them four weeks to get a team out here to do that.

Now you don't have to take too long out here to realise the circumstance. You can look at the weather patterns, you can look at the length of time in which they haven't had [rain]. The declaration of Exceptional Circumstances is the key point; that shouldn't take long. Once that's triggered, then farmers who are affected by it are eligible for this payment.

DUFFIELD: And they should be getting it.

CREAN: And should be getting it. Now there's a second dimension too, Trisha, and that's terribly important in terms of drought policy. That is, how do we ensure that the farmers who are still holding on – and the great thing about them was the spirit of commitment, a belief in themselves, a belief that things will come good – but the need to keep hold of their core breeding stock. Now they need assistance for that too. And under drought policy, we've got to look at better ways by which we can assist them to keep that core breeding stock intact. That's their asset, that's what they'll need when the drought breaks.

DUFFIELD: Do we have anything in place at the moment for that?

CREAN: There are mechanisms under that policy that I introduced that can be activated. There are low-interest mechanisms. There used to also be investment arrangements, which this Government has scrapped without any analysis. So I think we've got to look again at the elements of the drought policy that were in place and see what effectively works for these people.

DUFFIELD: If we're looking at major droughts like this every decade or so, is there anything that we can do that will change the impact of those sort of climactic conditions, though? Are we just going to be patching up our rural sector if we're going to be beset by drought? I mean, what is the future for this? Are we going to have a better way of dealing with it, or do we need to change the way we are farming? Or do we need to redefine areas that are considered, you know, possible for farming? What can we do there?

CREAN: A lot of those things we do have to continue to look at. One of the things that needs to be undertaken now, Trisha, obviously is the research into climactic conditions to better predict and better prepare. But, again, the research funding by this Government was cut back. But what, in '94, when the policy was put together - you can't eradicate drought and we shouldn't try and pretend you can – but you can prepare better for it. Obviously if you've got the resources and climactic conditions, you can put money away, you can start to feed stock when the conditions start to deteriorate, all of those sorts of things. One of the mechanisms was Farm Management Bonds, whereby people in the good times can put into these bonds and so that's not counted as income in that particular year, and the year …

DUFFIELD: Did farmers then take that? Did a lot of farmers participate in that?

CREAN: Well, it's interesting. I heard there was something like – the figures were released recently – something like $2billion was put into the Farm Bond. The difficulty in this territory, in this area, was that because they were recovering from the last drought, there wasn't a lot of the good years before this one to, you know, really enable them to put a lot in. But, yes, speaking to some of the farmers yesterday, some had utilised the scheme. But that's why we've got to have flexible mechanisms, mechanisms that people who are in the situation can draw on. If that doesn't work for them, let's look at something else.

We've got have them prepare for it, and it has to be a partnership too, Trisha. That's the importance of me meeting up with Bob Carr today. It has to be State and Federal Governments working together to address this problem – a partnership that works. At the moment we haven't got a partnership that works, because the Federal Government's dragging its feet. And I must say, when I was the Primary Industries Minister back in '92-'94, I had to negotiate it with essentially all Coalition Ministers, but I achieved the outcome. I got there because I drove them to get an outcome that works for drought-affected communities. That's what's got to be our guide. We've got to listen to them, we've got to understand the problems, and we've got to develop sensible policies that meet their needs.

DUFFIELD: Absolutely. I think that's the only way it's going to work when we have droughts that start to get on the scale of the one we're talking about at the moment. And where this drought is likely, or has been tipped, that this may put Australia into recession, that starts to be a whole different ball game. We're not just talking about an agricultural problem, are we? We're talking about an economic problem.

CREAN: Exactly, and that's why all governments have to get involved in this, because it's not just the problems of the drought-affected areas. It's a problem for the nation. It affects our national income, our Gross National Product but, most of all, it affects jobs across the community. And that's where governments have to play a constructive role.

DUFFIELD: Absolutely. Simon, thank you very much for your time this morning. We really do appreciate it. I know you're very busy, so thank you very much for sharing those thoughts with us this morning.

CREAN: Okay, thanks Trisha.

(ends)