Hanson urges more expansion to farmer drought payments
MEDIA RELEASE
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called for an end to time limits for payments to drought-impacted farmers under the Farm Household Allowance program.
The allowance, an amount equal to Newstart payments, is available to farmers who are suffering financial stress due to the drought, which has extended into eight years for many communities.
Senator Hanson has criticised Government rules that restrict the payments to “four years in each specified 10-year period”. The first four-year period started in 2014.
“Farmers are still the backbone of this country,” Senator Hanson said in a speech to the Senate.
“One Nation and I will continue to fight to make sure farmers who are struggling financially due to the impact of this extended drought get the support they need.
“The government remains incredibly out of touch with farmers and their needs through these difficult times.
“The eligibility for these Farm Household Allowance payments should be in place for struggling farmers for as long as the drought emergency lasts, whether it’s five years, 10 years or longer, or for a period of time until they are deriving a farm income.
“The point I’ve made previously is that we don’t put time limits on payments for those receiving Newstart. In fact, there are families that have received such payments for generation after generation, yet we allow that to go on with hardly any questions asked.
“It is worth noting that farmers who receive these Farm Household Allowance payments are not just sitting on the couch watching TV or sitting down at the pub, unlike many other welfare recipients who take these payments as a right.
“The farmers are continuing to work, caring for the cattle, buying fodder, fixing fences, managing weeds and just doing what they can to make ends meet while they wait for the rains that will end the drought. From there they can rebuild their farming operations and their lives.”
Senator Hanson is also angered that the Government has suggested farmers who are struggling should consider their farming futures.
“I’m annoyed that the default position of the government seems to be to tell farmers to reconsider their futures,” she said.
“To me, that sounds like government code for: ‘We have no answers. We give up and we want you to give up too.’
“I’m not having any of that. Our farmers are the lifeblood of Australia. I’m not going to give up. I’m keeping this important industry alive and thriving.
“We grow the best food in the world and we have the best milk and the best livestock, and we are not going to just throw that all away.
“I call on the PM to clean up our own backyard and look after Australians first before handing out hard-earned taxpayer dollars in foreign aid to other nations, who use us as a milking cow, and addressing climate change demands.
“I won’t be taken for a mug and neither will most other Australians.”
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