Interview with Patricia Karvelas, ABC Afternoon Briefing

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING
MONDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2025

SUBJECTS: 2025 National Drought Forum; Drought policy; Algal bloom in South Australia.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: In South Australia, the nation's agricultural leaders are meeting for a major drought forum. Farming groups want a total review of Australia's drought policies to ensure help is getting to where it's needed quickly. Now, Julie Collins is the Federal Agriculture Minister, and she's our guest. Julie Collins, welcome back.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Good afternoon, Patricia and to your viewers today.

KARVELAS: Farmers are hoping for a total review of how drought support is being rolled out across Australia. Is that on the cards?

COLLINS: Well, what we're doing is having discussions with farmers and primary producers. There's financial institution representatives and tiers of government here, all three tiers of government, to talk about the support that is provided to farmers, to talk about whether or not the support needs some tweaks, is adequate and what the gaps to that support might be. And you've seen some announcements from various state governments that have been impacted by drought in recent months, as well as, of course, from the Commonwealth Government with just over a week ago, where we announced a further billion dollars in terms of the Regional Investment Corporation loans and giving farmers surety that those loans will continue past 30 June next year.

KARVELAS: Farmers say the new system doesn't have that transparency between the state, federal - the feds and the state, basically. They want coherence between those responsibilities under this new system. Do you agree that it's become a bit confusing and that this critique is valid?

COLLINS: Well, I think, Patricia, farmers are making some really difficult decisions, and in some parts of the country, they've been doing it for not just one season, but two and sometimes three, depending on where they've been impacted over the last few years. So, I think they're getting quite, I suppose, frustrated about the decisions that they're needing to make every day. So, really tough decisions about their future, about the future of their farm, about their crops and their livestock, and these are really difficult things. So, what they really want is surety going forward that the support is going to be there when they need it. And that's what we want to do is talk to the other tiers of government under the National Drought Agreement, that's been in place for some time, around a decade, I understand. There's no longer any drought declarations per se, but states and territories provide that initial response, and the Federal Government support is there all of the time. But what you've seen from our government is some additional announcements because we know just how hard this drought has impacted. Things like additional funding for rural financial counselling, for instance, acknowledging that they're on the ground every day and that they need additional resources to deal with the extent of the drought. And of course, as I've said, that additional investment in the Regional Investment Corporation for those concessional loans, so that farmers know that they are also available all the time and ongoing. Because one of the things we know is that whilst it's been raining a little bit and some areas have had more rain than others in terms of the drought impact, that it will take some years for most farmers and their farms to recover from the impact of this drought. So, we want to be there as part of the recovery as well as helping them with the day-to-day during drought.

KARVELAS: So, just to be clear, some farmers have a grievance about the new system because they don't think it's transparent. Do you think it could be improved?

COLLINS: Well, there's always room for improvement, Patricia. And what the Drought Forum is about is, as I said, is having those other tiers of government. Most of the state ministers are in the room and are attending. Certainly, some local government representatives are attending, myself here from the Federal Government, but importantly also officials who deal with this day to day in those tiers of government to talk to farmers about making sure that we do have it right. That's what the Drought Forum is about. It's about listening to farmers. And you know, I've been on farm myself last year and this year, it's my third visit to South Australia, even since the election to be on farm. I've been here, we've had the Prime Minister on the ground with the Premier listening to farmers. This is about listening to them and to hear them about the support that they have been receiving. The South Australian government has announced over $70 million worth of local support, and that's on top of the Federal Government supports that are available all the time. Since the '22 election, our government has now provided around a billion dollars in drought and rural support through the various schemes, the Farm Household Allowance and particularly the Regional Investment Corporation loans. So, we are providing that support. We have around, I think it's around 3,500 families, Patricia, who are on the Farm Household Allowance. So, that is providing support to farmers all over the country, around 1,000 here in South Australia.

KARVELAS: In the US and in Canada, they've got multi-peril insurance schemes, and some farmers really want you to have another look at them. Do you think that there needs to be this issue pursued as well?

COLLINS: Well, I've been really clear, and the Prime Minister has been clear. We're not ruling anything out. We want to work with other tiers of government. We want to work with farmers about the supports that are there to say whether or not we need to tweak those and to look about whether or not any other additional support is necessary, and what that might look like. We do know with climate change that making sure that farmers have the resilience and the persistence to keep going during the changing climate is going to be really important. And one of the things we did with the Regional Investment Corporation announcement was to also allow climate resilience sustainability loans to be available. So, that'll be a new product that will be available, that we will also develop hand-in-hand with farmers. We also, of course, with the algal bloom here in South Australia, announced that we will change the Regional Investment Corporation to also have another product for slow-moving ecological events such as the bloom, in recognition with climate change that we are also likely to get more of those. So, certainly as a Federal Government, we are listening, we are hearing, and we are adapting in terms of the Federal Government support that's available. But I think what's important here is you have all three tiers of government and the financial institutions and all of us here together on the ground listening, hearing and responding to what is happening on the ground for farmers.

KARVELAS: Just on the algal bloom, you can see that the way that the declarations are made have been problematic?

COLLINS: What I would say is that the important thing with the bloom has been to make sure that the support is available. There isn't a mechanism of the Federal Government to deal with these types of issues at the moment. The algal bloom is probably more like a drought than it is like a bushfire or a flood, where there's emergency funding available to households because, you know, they need to evacuate or leave homes. So, this is a little bit different. So, what we're doing is we're adapting to that. But in the meantime, of course, we have made sure that funding flows. So, we have now provided everything that the South Australian government has asked for. So, originally, 14 million, which was matched by the South Australian government, then some additional funds, around $6 million, including some going directly to councils for some of the clean-up on the beaches. And I've been here today seeing some of that cleanup that has occurred firsthand, but still seeing some of that ecological impact on people.

KARVELAS: Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon, Minister.

COLLINS: Thanks very much, Patricia.