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Drought policies developed in 'vacuum', farmers' lobby says – politics live
Drought policies developed in 'vacuum', farmers' lobby says – politics live
(32 minutes later)
Today’s announcement also might help explain why Josh Frydenberg yesterday called the drought the “biggest call on the budget”. Obviously, as the treasurer, he knew this was coming.
From a money point of view, it’s still not - but it is certainly the reason he has had to rework quite a few figures lately.
Bridget McKenzie gets to put the release out on it:
Today the Australian Government introduced improvements to the Farm Household Allowance (FHA) that will help more farmers through periods of hardship. This is our next step in responding to the Independent Review of FHA which will see more than 30,000 farmers able to access this immediate support.
Minister for Agriculture, Senator Bridget McKenzie said the changes extended farming families’ access the FHA from three years in their lifetime to four years out of every 10, recognising that farmers experience hardships, including droughts, more than once in their lives.
“...A one-off drought relief payment of up to $13,000 for a farming family, and up to $7,500 for an individual is designed to help people determine whether they will be sustainable, should look at succession options or, in some instances choose to sell.
“For the first time, we’ll link farm enterprises with their directly-related businesses and consider income and losses together – not just income – a big change in how Government support payments are provided to families.
“Our Government had already made changes to make the FHA quicker and easier to access by reducing paperwork by a third and by temporarily increasing farm assets threshold to $5 million from 1 July 2019.
“It is all part of the radical simplification of the FHA application process and key policy settings that the Prime Minister announced on 27 September.”
These improvements include:
a simplified assets test
a significant redesign of the application process and form, including allowing farming couples to apply using the same form
a strengthened case management approach to better support farmers in hardship through periods of financial difficulty.
...The FHA has been supporting Australian farmers since July 2014. It has paid more than $365 million to around 12,700 recipients in that time.
David Littleproud, who, had some interesting things to say about “metropolitan commentators” who were “frothing at the mouth” this morning *cough* is now introducing those FHA changes in the chamber.
Scott Morrison has announced changes to the farm household allowance - on John Laws Sydney radio 2SM (who is not Alan Jones, you might note) show.
At the end of the four years (the current time allowed for the payment, which essentially is welfare for farmers, and is paid at the same rate as Newstart) farmers will receive a lump sum payment of $7,500 for singles, and $13,000 for couples.
Peter Dutton is speaking to the media and he says he feels there may be “some complacency” around security, because “thank God”, Australia has not been the scene of a major terrorist attack within its borders.
He’s addressing Duncan Lewis’s parting call – to publicly request more money for Asio, noting that the resources were strained in the *public* report, as well as warning of a growing rightwing terrorism threat.
Dutton blamed Labor for cutting Asio’s budget (Labor has not been in power since 2014) and said the government had been putting that money back.
The prime minister is talking to John Laws on 2SM, but none of us can listen in, because the 2SM site is down.
The prime minister is talking to John Laws on 2SM, but none of us can listen in, because the 2SM site is down.
AAP on the NDIS announcement:
AAP on the NDIS announcement:
The next boss of the agency responsible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme is a former senior NSW bureaucrat.
The next boss of the agency responsible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme is a former senior NSW bureaucrat.
Martin Hoffman, who has been both a commonwealth deputy secretary and secretary of the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation, will take up the job from November 4.
Martin Hoffman, who has been both a commonwealth deputy secretary and secretary of the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation, will take up the job from November 4.
He has also held roles in the private sector, including as chief executive of Ninemsn.
He has also held roles in the private sector, including as chief executive of Ninemsn.
NDIS Minister Stuart Robert said Mr Hoffman has the “dedication, vision and expertise” to lead delivery of the transformational scheme.
NDIS Minister Stuart Robert said Mr Hoffman has the “dedication, vision and expertise” to lead delivery of the transformational scheme.
“He will build on the ground-breaking work already underway and will make a real difference in delivering on the government’s commitment to realising the full benefits of the scheme for participants,” the minister said.
“He will build on the ground-breaking work already underway and will make a real difference in delivering on the government’s commitment to realising the full benefits of the scheme for participants,” the minister said.
Labor had this week put pressure on the coalition to appoint a new leader for the National Disability Insurance Agency, with its previous chief executive Robert De Luca resigning in April.
Labor had this week put pressure on the coalition to appoint a new leader for the National Disability Insurance Agency, with its previous chief executive Robert De Luca resigning in April.
“It is literally leaderless,” opposition NDIS spokesman Bill Shorten told the lower house on Monday night.
“It is literally leaderless,” opposition NDIS spokesman Bill Shorten told the lower house on Monday night.
The organisation’s deputy chief executive Vicki Rundle had been acting in the top job since Mr De Luca’s resignation.
The organisation’s deputy chief executive Vicki Rundle had been acting in the top job since Mr De Luca’s resignation.
Mr Hoffman has been appointed for a three-year term.
Mr Hoffman has been appointed for a three-year term.
Labor has voted to support the Indonesian free trade agreement, at the end of its shadow caucus meeting.
Labor has voted to support the Indonesian free trade agreement, at the end of its shadow caucus meeting.
Jim Chalmers was asked about Josh Frydenberg’s interview on his way into parliament his morning:
Jim Chalmers was asked about Josh Frydenberg’s interview on his way into parliament his morning:
The weakness in the Australian economy isn’t primarily because of weakness in the global economy, it’s primarily because the Morrison government doesn’t have a plan. Too many Australians are looking for work or for more work because the economy is floundering on the Liberals’ watch. Business knows, and the community knows, that we won’t get the economic growth we need to create good jobs while the government continues to sit on its hands.
The weakness in the Australian economy isn’t primarily because of weakness in the global economy, it’s primarily because the Morrison government doesn’t have a plan. Too many Australians are looking for work or for more work because the economy is floundering on the Liberals’ watch. Business knows, and the community knows, that we won’t get the economic growth we need to create good jobs while the government continues to sit on its hands.
The call to parliament has sounded.
The call to parliament has sounded.
Huzzah.
Huzzah.
Stuart Robert has called a doorstop to discuss this at 9.45.
NDIS Minister Stuart Robert has named former senior NSW public servant Martin Hoffman as the new National Disability Insurance Agency CEO. He led the taskforce setting up the new Services Australia department #auspol @FinancialReview
Asked for some of those specifics, Fiona Simson told the ABC it was about planning for the future, while looking at ways farmers could diversify their businesses:
So, certainly, I think it’s about looking at how we farm now in Australia.
How sustainable that is. It’s about looking at add to those income streams. It’s about supporting.
We’re looking at, for example, at the moment we can create perhaps energy, we can create income streams from energy on underground gas …
We know that there’s, you know, for example, solar energy can save farmers enormous amounts of money.
It’s about looking at planning for drought on a regular basis.
[It’s about] how can we make sure that farmers have access to, to to infrastructure on farms, and there’s a whole suite of measures that we want to discuss with the government, but it’s not just about farmers.
It is also about rural regional communities. Because if we’re going to relieve the population pressures in the city, if we’re going to really truly build our regional communities at the moment – we’re talking about indoor agriculture, for example, with vertical farming …
There’s many things we need to look at, Hamish, and that they need to be done together collaboratively, not in this sort of one government at a time, with the industry out of the room and communities out of the room. We need to plan for it.
Fiona Simson, the president of the National Farmers’ Federation, also had a chat to ABC radio this morning. Here is some of what she had to say about the drought policy:
[Policies] are being developed in a vacuum because there’s no real effective way of measuring whether or not these these measures have been robust.
When we get to the end of a drought, and we’ve done it before, we’ve done it recently in the millennial drought, then we just sort of seemed to go that one’s over, pick up our pieces and and wait for the next rather than thinking every day – how can we make a rural and regional communities more resilient?
How can we make our farmers, our really important food- and fibre-growing people, more resilient?
How can we keep jobs in the in the country areas?
How can we make sure that people have access to fresh water, which is just a first world sort of thing?
And these are things that our strategy, which involves all levels of government, working together hand in hand on a regular basis with the community, with farmers, to actually get, you know, put in a new way, a new paradigm of dealing with drought in Australia …
I’ll just finish the that no other government has been able to do this yet. It is an incredibly difficult space to work in. And look, we are really grateful for the Morrison government’s commitment to look at this and to work with us in developing this new strategy. And this new way of treating drought in Australia.
There has also been a bit of chatter this morning about Josh Frydenberg’s interview with Phil Coorey in the Fin, in the lead-up to his attendance at the IMF meeting in Washington.
It’s an extension of what he was saying yesterday, in response to calls for stimulus after the IMF’s downgrade of Australia’s economic growth outlook.
The promised surplus is now being billed as an “economic buffer”.
“A strong budget position helps build the resilience of the economy for external shocks, whenever that may occur, and your ability to respond to those shocks with a fiscal response,” Frydenberg told the Australian Financial Review.
I am not sure that is going to calm the calls for stimulus, given the economy’s position, but you can start to see the narrative they are building – stimulus is coming, but it will be after the surplus, and what the government considers “good” stimulus (“bad” stimulus, in this scenario being painted, was Labor’s response after the GFC).
The attorney general, Christian Porter, will introduce amendments to native title today.
From his release:
The native title legislation amendment bill 2019 implements a range of measures recommended by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) and the Council of Australian Governments (Coag).
It was also informed by extensive consultation with native title claimants who said they wanted more flexibility and efficiency built into the system. The bill will provide claimant groups with:
Improved pathways for dispute resolution following a determination of native title;
Increased transparency and accountability for prescribed bodies corporate (the corporations set up to manage native title);
Greater flexibility for bodies corporate to set their own internal processes.
Importantly, the bill also seeks to end the uncertainty created by a 2017 full federal court judgment that cast doubts over the validity of hundreds of what are known as “section 31” agreements, which are negotiated between claimant groups and industry to facilitate land access.
The McGlade decision found that such agreements were only valid if they were signed by all representatives of a claimant group, rather than by a majority – even if the only reason for not obtaining every signature was because a single representative had died.
The bill will validate all affected agreements and ensure that a majority of representatives can negotiate on behalf of a claimant group in the future.
For some history on this issue, you can head here.
I told you drought was going to be the issue of the day.
Adding to @msmarto news this morning on this morning’s special caucus meeting after a second shadow cabinet meeting last night to thrash out trade, I gather there’s also internal Labor angst about drought funding @AmyRemeikis
I’m listening to Hamish Macdonald interview David Littleproud on RN, and it sounded as though Littleproud just took a swipe at some city media types, saying that “while I get a lot of metropolitan commentators are frothing at the mouth at the moment” in regards to the drought and what needs to be done, says we “need to be careful” not to scare the next generation from entering agriculture as a career.
Macdonald pulled him up on the “metropolitan commentators ... frothing at the mouth” comment.
HM:
To be perfectly fair, having spent a fair amount of time in drought-affected regions recently, I mean, that is what you hear when you go there – I mean, I don’t think it is just metropolitan commentators saying this sort of stuff [that more needs to be done], people on farms are quite desperate at the moment; are you sort of diminishing their plight by suggesting that?
DL:
Totally not, Hamish. I don’t have the comfort of tucking myself into a bed in a metropolitan [area], I actually live and breath it every day, my friend. I actually see these people and I know them by face and by name. These are resilient people. And they believe in what they do and they know what they are doing is the best in the world. Now we are going through a tough time and we’ve continued to have these conditions over our whole agricultural history, but we’ve faced up to them, and we’ve continued to work through them. So we will get through this, and when people say they want hope, then it is about leadership of hope and saying we will get through this, your government will stand shoulder to shoulder with you in this, and we will get you through, in the here and now ... the community and the future, that is why we are going to prepare to get them through this one and prepare them to get through the next one.
While it is not unusual for National MPs to talk down about metro journalists with the “latte sippers” line alive and well in Michael McCormack’s world, Littleproud’s comment is interesting given its timing.
The conservative Sydney 2GB radio host Alan Jones had quite the combative interview with Scott Morrison on Monday on the issue of the drought, loudly interrupting with “how is that going to feed cows?” as Morrison detailed his government’s spending, and then, when talking about the drought on his Sky News show the next night, broke down crying.
I’m not sure if that counts as “frothing at the mouth” but I’m also pretty sure there will be some raised eyebrows when the comment gets back to some of those metropolitan offices.
Meanwhile, Paul Karp had this story late yesterday, after taking a look through the Asio annual report:
The threat from extreme rightwing terrorism in Australia has increased in recent years and will remain an “enduring threat”, according to Australia’s spy agency.
The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation issued the warning in its latest annual report, adding that “extreme rightwing groups in Australia are more cohesive and organised than they have been in previous years”.
The comments amp up the agency’s concern about rightwing extremist terrorism, after Asio boss Duncan Lewis told Senate estimates in April it was an important issue but the Christchurch massacre had not changed the agency’s calculus.
Asio has also reported a strain on its resources, with more calls for advice.
Kristina Keneally told the ABC the security agency had sounded an “alarm bell”.
“It’s an incredibly important agency in our national security framework and for them to be reporting in this time when the challenges they face are quite complex, that they are stretched for resources, well that’s an alarm bell,” she said.
Threat from extreme rightwing terrorism in Australia has increased, Asio says
Labor MPs have been called to a special meeting of caucus at 8.30am this morning to decide their position on three new free trade agreements.
The meeting comes after a working group of shadow ministers and union leaders held meetings on Wednesday afternoon to try to work through concerns over the Indonesian FTA.
Labor is expected to endorse the enabling legislation but a number of MPs from both the left and right factions will push for the party to demand concessions on labor market access and skills testing.
It’s expected to spark a heated debate in caucus, particularly given that elements of the agreements are at odds with the party’s national platform.
The ACTU has been spearheading lobbying efforts to get the deals knocked off, raising fears about future market access for temporary visa holders under the Indonesian deal.
The shadow trade minister, Madeleine King, has been clear that she wants the party to support the agreements but may be forced to adopt a new negotiating position to appease the concerns of caucus.
We will know more later this morning.
Welcome to the last sitting day for this week.
After the parliament rises today, senators will turn their attention to Senate estimates next week, while the House will sit alone.
But the ongoing drought looms large over everything being done in this building at the moment, with the government repeatedly forced to defend their strategy.
Yesterday, on Sky, Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon called for a drought “war cabinet”. The government says it is working with everyone it can to deliver its policy.
The National Farmers’ Federation released its own drought plan late yesterday, after repeated calls to plan for the future.
From Sarah Martin:
Under the policy, the NFF framework proposes that industry, community groups and the three tiers of government all work together in developing a drought strategy.
This would identify specific drought measures that need to be maintained, amended or reviewed; and to propose new drought measures, build on the Coag national drought agreement and incorporate lessons learned from past droughts, create a drought forum and establish a drought committee.
“While this national drought policy comes too late to help those managing this drought, the NFF is determined to see that we don’t find ourselves, once again, without a plan for drought,” the NFF’s Fiona Simson said.
“We continue to consult with the government about further measures to assist farmers during this drought, including recommendations for commonwealth support for local government rate relief.”
David Littleproud, speaking to the ABC this morning, says the government “already has” a drought strategy.
“Our response has been one of being responsive to the situation,” he said.
This is not an issue that is going anywhere. And it is only going to get bigger, with no rains in sight.
We’ll bring you that, as well everything else that happens today.
Mike Bowers is, as always, up and about, cameras in hand, while Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin and Paul Karp will also be burrowing away on stories. You’ll catch me on the socials, and, when I get a chance, in the comments. And of course, the coffee line.
