Another week has passed and still our drought affected farming families are not getting the financial assistance they so desperately need.
Throughout February of this year drought was on the front pages of all our newspapers and you could not turn on morning television without hearing a story about a drought affected family or a fundraising campaign for drought affected farmers.
The Prime Minister went on a drought tour with the Minister for Agriculture and subsequently they announced a drought package—a drought package Labor welcomed and extended a bipartisan hand for.
The Prime Minister's tour stopped the publicity and was a great political circuit breaker for him and for the Government.
The problem is that the money announced has not been delivered to the farming families who so desperately need it.
We have had another drought tour since that tour, and this time it was the Agriculture Minister and the Treasurer. Still, there was no additional assistance and no reshaping of the Government's drought policy.
Today there is a roundtable on rural debt. I do not have any problem with a roundtable —but the time for just talking is done.
The money is there.
I simply ask the Government to start getting it out to the people who most need it.
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