Senator O'Brien asked the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, upon notice, on 30 March 1999:

(1) Did the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) undertake any work on the application from the New South Wales Government for a drought exceptional circumstances (DEC) declaration for the Wentworth Rural Lands Protection Board (RLPB) in September 1997; if so (a) what was the nature of the work undertaken; and (b) what were the conclusions ABARE reached about the merits of that application.

(2) Did ABARE undertake further work on subsequent applications from the New South Wales Government for DEC or exceptional circumstances declarations for the Wentworth RLPD; if so (a) what additional work did ABARE undertake; (b) when was that work undertaken; and (c) what was the outcome of that work.

Senator Alston (Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) —The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) Upon request ABARE provided a brief to the secretary of the Rural Adjustment Scheme Advisory Council (RASAC) for the Wentworth RLPD application for EC on 24 October 1997. The brief contained information on the production characteristics, financial performance and commodity outlook for farms in the Wentworth RLPD and surrounding shires. ABARE surveys only a small number of farms within the Wentworth RLPD and was therefore unable to provide reliable farm financial performance estimates for the Wentworth RLPD alone. To provide some indication of the financial performance of farms in the general area including the Wentworth RLPD, survey data were presented for farms in the shires of Wentworth, Balranald and Central Darling combined.

The brief provided indicated that farm cash income for the shires had fallen in both 1995-96 and 1996-97. Farm cash income fell from an average of $90 000 in 1994-95 to $28 500 in 1996-97. The farm cash income estimated for 1996-97 was below long term average for the shires and below the average for all broadacre farms in New South Wales for 1996-97. Farm cash incomes had fallen primarily as a consequence of lower wool, beef and grains production.

(2) A second brief on the Wentworth Rural Lands Protection District was provided to the secretary of RASAC on 18 August 1998. A similar range of information was provided for the same combination of shires as that provided in the first brief.

This second brief provided preliminary estimates of farm cash income for 1997-98. These estimates indicated that farm cash income had fallen further from the 1996-97 level.