Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is tightening drought assistance pressure on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by calling for the government’s $12,000 cash grants to farmers to be accelerated to September 1 while announcing a $20 million scheme to fund outback councils to create jobs.
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Mr Turnbull on Sunday announced the $12,000 grant scheme to be paid to drought-ravaged farmers on top of their $16,000 annual Farm Household Allowance.
However, some farmers criticised the plan as “too little too late”.
Mr Shorten has called on the government to accelerate the cash grants so farming families in need receive the full $12,000 by September 1.
“All the feedback we’re getting is that farmers need this help now and they need it fast,” Mr Shorten said.
“We support this package but it needs to be rolled out faster - farmers need immediate financial support.
“With a dry spring and summer forecast, the government should give farmers the option of bringing this entire payment forward.”
Meanwhile Mr Shorten will on Thursday in Ilfracombe near Longreach announce a $20 million Regional Economic Development Fund with shadow minister for rural and regional Australia, Joel Fitzgibbon.
It will inject money towards local councils to get local projects running.
“The fund will continue the work of the existing Drought Communities Program that the government has failed to fund beyond this financial year,” Mr Shorten said.
“It will be redesigned to provide local communities with the support they need,” he said.
Mr Shorten is in Queensland to also get a first-hand experience of extreme drought conditions.
Parts of western Queensland, like Longreach, have been drought declared since 2013.
Mr Shorten said Labor’s Regional Economic Development Fund targeted the flow-on effects of drought on outback towns.
“This fund is a targeted investment, based on local knowledge, and will be directed to local government to invest in shovel-ready projects,” Mr Shorten said.
“It will be directed towards diversifying and strengthening local economies for the future.
“This may include boosting local tourism opportunities and attracting new industries to the regions.”
The scheme includes council road projects and building community facilities, Mr Shorten said.
“Local councils know what the community needs to get back on track – which is why we will work directly with them to fund projects,” he said.
He said the Regional Economic Development Fund could fund local road and street infrastructure and small-scale capital developments like community facilities and sporting fields.
“For example, the Palaszczuk government’s initiative to erect wild dog fencing around Western Queensland, which provided a big boost to the region’s sheep industry, is exactly the sort of practical economic-boosting projects it is envisaged this fund will support,” he said.
