STEP UP: Former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce calls on the state governments to do more to help drought-stricken farmers.
Former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce has called on the state governments to do more to help drought-stricken farmers as conditions across NSW continue to decline.
The New England MP, who represents the Upper Hunter, says the states need to do “a little more heavy lifting” and pull their weight – especially when it comes to implementing freight subsidies to help farmers pay to move stock and transport fodder and water.
He recently met with the NSW Farmers Association to discuss drought assistance measures.
DROUGHT: The drought is spreading across NSW.
Both said Mr Joyce was a failed agriculture minister who should have done more to create better drought-support measures for farmers when he held the portfolio.
The loans cannot be used to buy fodder or water.
Mr Joyce said the federal government already had a range of assistance measures in place – including the farm household allowance.
The states may have been doing more if Barnaby Joyce didn’t abolish COAG’s Standing Council on Primary Industry, which was in place in part to ensure the Commonwealth and the states were working together on drought, Mr Fitzgibbon said.
Ms Swanson said Mr Joyce should work with federal agriculture minister David Littleproud as he was “well placed to guide him as to what we should be doing as a Commonwealth instead of trying to abrogate his responsibility and palm it off to the states.”