Senator WEST(5.34 p.m.) —It is with a great deal of interest that I enter this debate today because this is an important issue. This is again a situation where the coalition government, in particular the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy (Mr Anderson), a National Party minister, has come out with a policy that his own colleague from Queensland will not even sign off on. That is a little bit of a worry. It indicates to people just what farmers are thinking. The minister's colleague in Queensland is obviously a little more in touch with his grassroots than the federal minister is.

It is important to look in a historical sense at what the former government did in the last few years in relation to drought. The drought response measures were consistent with principles that recognised the inevitability of drought and the need for farmers to adopt a self-reliant approach, with drought support being provided by the Commonwealth under only exceptional circumstances and state based subsidies being phased out.

In conjunction with that, we were about introducing and doing drought research, drought preparedness, and drought management and support. On the research side, we introduced a number of programs that would support drought related research, including improving climatic forecasting and land, water and crop pasture management. In relation to drought preparedness, we had IEDs and FMBs, which provided incentives for saving income surpluses in good years for utilisation in bad years. We had taxation measures to better physically manage the impact. We had the rural adjustment scheme to support and implement farm productivity measures, including drought preparedness measures such as silage pits. We had landcare programs for improving land and water management, including for the impact of drought. We had rural counselling services.

On the drought management and support side, we had the normal rural adjustment scheme providing productivity support during the drought recovery phase. We had the exceptional circumstances scheme, which provided enhanced productivity and re-establishment support to assist farm businesses to maintain themselves throughout drought. We had the drought relief payment and associated measures, which were targeted to a number of farm families most in need. It provided them with income and it allowed them access to education assistance and to health assistance. As I said, we had the rural counselling service and the drought recovery and management facility.

These are the sorts of things the previous government did, under the former minister who has already spoken. They were well received on the whole in the areas. They were very well received not just by the farmers but by the farming communities. Many of the communities recognised that, when the farmers were assisted and had money to pay a number of their bills and to purchase food, they were enabling a cashflow to be generated within the community and that helped the whole of the community. So it is important to look at what the previous government has done.

It is also important to look at what the coalition's policy was on this issue before they came into power. In relation to exceptional circumstances, they said:

While farmers can . . . be expected to provide for income deficiencies caused by what could be described as "normal" fluctuations in climate and prices, the same cannot be said for "exceptional circumstances".

Senator Woodley —They said that in their policy.

Senator WEST —Yes, they did. Something has happened between then and now; hasn't there.

Senator Conroy —Non-core promise.

Senator WEST —I see; a non-core promise! It is not like an apple core, a bit rotten in the middle; is it? Their policy states:

In these situations, special Government measures are justified to ensure the survival of viable farmers and maintain the nation's capacity to produce and export farm produce.

The Government has not applied the drought "exceptional circumstances" provisions uniformly or fairly, leading to major inequities.

There were some problems, as the former minister has already outlined. But that does not mean you chuck the whole program out, which is what this lot look like they are doing. The policy continues:

As part of the scheduled review of the RAS during 1996, we will examine administrative arrangements to ensure they are not discriminatory.

The policy says that they would also `consider whether the "exceptional circumstances" provisions should be triggered in situations where a series of events occurs which are not exceptional in isolation, but are in their cumulative effect'. They are the sorts of things they were talking about in their policy document. This was a policy document of the Liberal and National parties.

They also said they were going to be `working with the states to develop a consistent definition of and administrative arrangements for drought "exceptional circumstances"'. They were obviously going to work closely with the states. It is pretty apparent from the comments of the Queensland minister that they did not work too closely with the states because he is pretty angry about the whole show. He is very angry, in fact. On 5 February last year, obviously during the election campaign, the minister said:

In relation to drought and exceptional circumstances, we will maintain and improve the national drought policy and ensure that exceptional circumstances provisions are administered in a fair and non-discriminatory manner.

I guess the way to be most non-discriminatory is to throw the whole thing out, as I said before.

Senator Bob Collins —That's what they're going to do.

Senator WEST —That is what they are going to do; have no doubts. When I look at the draft policy on this that was taken to ARMCANZ last year, I see that Senator Brownhill did certainly talk about a number of the objectives. He encouraged the widespread adoption by primary producers throughout Australia of a planned, self-reliant approach to farming risks and talked about the need to improve understanding of drought and drought policy, the need to ensure farm families are provided with the means to secure their welfare requirements and the need to ensure that the desirable ongoing structural adjustments to Australia's rural industries are not impeded.

Senator Bob Collins —You left one out.

Senator WEST —He left a number out, I suspect. They are the objectives. There are the general policy measures and then we get to farm business measures. Point 5 on page 10 of this draft says, `Exceptional circumstances subsidies for farm businesses to be terminated.' Isn't that interesting. It was even in their own documentation that they were flaunting around last year.

They talk about farm savings reserve schemes. Most farmers that I am talking to these days are complaining because they are having difficulty having some sort of income. The wool industry is struggling; the beef industry is struggling; wheat prices are down; there is a whole range of these things. Farmers are telling me that their income levels are such that they are not able at this stage to put any money away. It has been only 12 months or less in some areas since the drought ended. These people are still recovering from that drought. And what do their mates do? In a draft discussion paper, they put up to ARMCANZ: `Exceptional circumstances subsidies for farm businesses to be terminated.' That exposes them for what they are about.

Senator Bob Collins —Hear, hear.

Senator WEST —They are not about caring for people in the bush.

Senator Bob Collins —Just another big, broken promise.

Senator WEST —Absolutely. Senator Collins spoke about all the reviews they are conducting. I wonder when they are going to conduct a review of the reviews, because it really is getting Monty Pythonesque. If it was not so serious, this would be something of great humour for everybody. But lest they think the rural communities are happy with how they are doing, let me quote Jim Maxwell, the Manilla National Party branch chairman and mayor of Manilla. He is an angry man. An article in the Northern Daily Leader last year states:

He's angry and disillusioned that "the National Party has completely forgotten country people".

And the Manilla Shire mayor is particularly angry with John Anderson, the local Federal MP for Gwydir.

"John Anderson has completely deserted the people who put him there," Mr Maxwell said.

The National Party's Manilla branch chairman said: `There's a lot of anger coming from people who believe John Anderson doesn't care about them, that he's ignoring the grass roots'.

. . . . . . . . .

"People out here are

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