Tuesday, 10 September 2019

 Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:34): My question is for the Minister for Agriculture. Minister, you recently told ABC Country Hour listeners you thought you were doing a good job because you had checked your diary and counted that you had attended 73 events in regional Victoria over the last 250 days. Minister, if attending events outside of Melbourne is an indicator of whether or not you are doing a good job, why did it take you so long to visit the drought-affected farmers in the Millewa?

 Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Resources) (12:34): I thank Ms Bath for her question—slightly taken out of context in relation to the assessment of how I described my job. The question was, ‘How often are you out in country Victoria?’, and I was able to demonstrate that I have attended 73 events in regional Victoria, which is probably a lot less than the amount of time that I have spent in regional Victoria and the amount of towns I have visited and meetings I have had. This was literally around events. It was to demonstrate that the Andrews Labor government, through many members of the government, whether they are in a ministerial portfolio or not, are always out and about listening to the interests of regional Victoria. As the Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Agriculture and of course Minister for Resources, I have three portfolios that bring me to all areas of regional Victoria quite often. I enjoyed my visit to the Millewa last week, although of course it was quite sombre. I have been to Mildura several times, and I make every effort to get to every corner of the state in my responsibilities in the three portfolios that I hold.

 Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:36): I note the minister’s response, and my supplementary is as such: Minister, after your visit to the Millewa you admitted during your subsequent ABC CountryHour interview that conditions are, to quote you:

… devastating. I’m looking at the BOM radar every time it rains and it’s not raining in the right spots …

Now that you have seen and heard firsthand the challenges in the Millewa, will you do more than just look at the Bureau of Meteorology radar and actually introduce the additional drought support measures that farming families are pleading for?

 Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Resources) (12:36): Ms Bath, that supplementary is highly offensive. Of course I am not going to drought-affected areas and saying that I am looking at the BOM, okay? I am actually giving credit to the people rather than making attempts at political pointscoring out of people that are suffering from dry and drought conditions. What our government is doing is providing more than $50 million in drought support packages, and a lot of that has been taken up by people in the Millewa. More than half of the farmers in the Millewa have accessed our infrastructure grants to put infrastructure on their farms to deal with the conditions that they are facing. In addition to the infrastructure grants that people are accessing, there are six workshops that have been rolled out in the Millewa, attended by over 60 farmers.

Ms Bath interjected.

Ms SYMES: Do you want the accurate information or not, Ms Bath? We have had workshops in the Millewa—60 farmers. We have got rural financial counselling services on the ground. Agriculture Victoria is on the ground providing support. I have met with Millewa farmers. There is still money available, there is still support available and I encourage all ministers— (Time expired)