$5 bil­lion vic­tory for Fu­ture Drought Fund

The Western Star - - News | Rural -

DROUGHT-STRICKEN farm­ers are re­lieved af­ter bi­par­ti­san­ship sup­port was shown for the Coali­tion’s Fu­ture Drought Fund in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

The Coali­tion’s move to­wards de­liv­er­ing a key elec­tion prom­ise will in­clude a $5 bil­lion fund to en­sure $100 mil­lion a year in per­pe­tu­ity to­wards drought re­silience and pre­pared­ness.

Be­fore the elec­tion, the ALP said it would not back the Coali­tion’s plan but af­ter an em­bit­tered de­bate on Mon­day night the leg­is­la­tion was passed in the Lower House.

Min­is­ter for Wa­ter Re­sources, Drought, Ru­ral Fi­nance, Nat­u­ral Dis­as­ter and Emer­gency Man­age­ment David Lit­tleproud said it was a great vic­tory for farm­ers.

“We promised to do this to sup­port our farm­ers and we’re de­liv­er­ing,” he said.

“We hope this bill passes quickly through the Se­nate so we can get on with the job of de­liv­er­ing the fund.

“There’s much work to do be­fore 1 July 2020, in­clud­ing con­sul­ta­tion.”

Both par­ties ac­cused each other of politi­cis­ing the mis­ery of farm­ers in drought, how­ever Mr Lit­tleproud said La­bor has fi­nally been dragged to com­mon­sense – sup­port­ing the bill at the last pos­si­ble mo­ment.

“We cel­e­brate this great day and look for­ward to sup­port of the Se­nate, help­ing farm­ers from July 1 next year,” Mr Lit­tleproud said.

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