Tuesday, 17 June 2025

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:42): (1160) My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, and I ask: when will Gippsland farmers be able to apply for on-farm drought infrastructure grants? The government announced on 15 May that it was extending the on-farm drought infrastructure grants to a number of new municipalities, including South Gippsland, Bass Coast and Baw Baw. On 15 May that was announced, yet here we are now on – what are we up to – 17 June, and Gippsland farmers still cannot apply for this. There is a question mark as to how useful this grant is to farmers who are in drought and already short of cash, but if the government is going to provide this, it should not be making an announcement and then asking farmers to wait more than a month to actually be able to apply. I know that since then the government has extended this across the state. How hard can it be to open the applications? Farmers are in need now. I have had contact from two different farmers today about it in South Gippsland. The government should get this open as quickly as possible.