Interview with Selina Green, ABC Country Hour

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC COUNTRY HOUR
TUESDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER 2025

SUBJECTS: $30 million boost for SA farm business and regional resilience programs; 2025 National Drought Forum; Drought policy.

CASSANDRA HOUGH, HOST: We are just going to step away from the Nuffield Conference for a moment, because if you were listening yesterday, you'll know the National Drought Forum is underway in South Australia, Gawler, at the moment. And earlier today, the Federal and State Government made a joint announcement around some more funding for drought support. $30 million from the State and Federal Governments is being put towards boosting farm business and national - sorry, regional resilience programs, and that is now going to continue into 2029. And the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins, is in South Australia for the Drought Forum. She didn't make it to the Country Hour yesterday, but we did get a chance to speak with her earlier today. Selina Green caught up with the Minister a short time ago and asked her to explain how that money is going to be spent.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: This is a continuation of some on-farm business resilience grants and also some regional planning grants that have been already operating in South Australia. And so this is $30 million, 50 per cent from the state government, 50 per cent from the Commonwealth. And we know that around 3,500 primary producers in South Australia have already attended some of these farm business training activities and resilience workshops. This is about ensuring that more South Australian primary producers can access this support.

SELINA GREEN, INTERVIEWER: So, why was this a program that you were keen to invest in continuing?

COLLINS: We've been having feedback about the usefulness of the workshops, but it also helps businesses prepare and be more resilient when drought actually hits, and as we start to recover from the existing drought, which hopefully will end sometime soon. We've had a bit of rainfall. But we need to be better prepared for droughts in future with the changing climate, because there are going to probably be more droughts.

GREEN: So, this is, as you say, it is about a resilience program, about long-term resilience and planning for drought. What about those producers, though, who are currently still experiencing drought? What about support for those?

COLLINS: Yeah, and this is my third visit now to South Australia, being out on farms and talking to farmers. And obviously, the Drought Forum is a great opportunity to have people from all over the country who are being impacted by drought, because we know that farmers across the country over the last couple of years have had drought impact in many states and territories. And this is about listening to them and their feedback on the support that is available all of the time. There is support available now in South Australia from the South Australian Government still, and there is support available from the Commonwealth. The Federal Government supports the things like the Farm Household Allowance, which is available for farmers who are in financial difficulty to help them keep food on the table. And then of course we've got our Regional Investment Corporation, and we made an announcement just over a week and a half ago with the Prime Minister that we'll put a further billion dollars into the Regional Investment Corporation loans and that those loans will be ongoing. It was due to close off on the 30th of June next year. That'll provide farmers and primary producers with the confidence that that support is going to be available going forward for them. And then, of course, we continue to listen to farmers and feedback about what else needs to, what other support they need. And we've added additional financial counselling and some additional funding, particularly for South Australia and Victoria, to ramp up their financial counsellors, the rural financial counsellors, which we know have been instrumental on farm, providing that support to farmers about what support is available and how to access it.

GREEN: You mentioned the RIC there, the Regional Investment Corporation. That is something that does come up quite a bit, and I'm sure it's been raised with you at this forum, and that is around the RIC interest rate that farmers continuously raise with us when we talk about drought support. Is the government looking at changing the way that the interest rate is measured? Because one of the arguments is that it's not really a low interest rate at the moment, comparable to commercial lending rates.

COLLINS: It's currently set at 5.18 and is a concessional loan, and it was designed by the former government and was due to go up on the 1st of August. We've obviously made a decision that it won't go up, and it will remain at its current level for the next six months while we talk to farmers and talk to people about what is required. And indeed, we actually respond to the review of the Regional Investment Corporation, and we've made a commitment that we'll respond to that review by the end of this calendar year.

GREEN: What about interest-free periods on loans or HECS-style repayments? Are they possibilities on the table?

COLLINS: We're talking to farmers and getting their feedback about what adjustments to the support might be required. And we will respond to the review of the Regional Investment Corporation by the end of the year. I don't want to rule anything in or out, but what I would say is that the Regional Investment Corporation was designed as a concessional loan scheme, and we do not want to compete with the commercial banks. This is a different product, and this is about how governments provide support. We've also expanding the remit of the Regional Investment Corporation to allow farmers to do more climate resilience as well. Loans for infrastructure on farm that might help them with climate resilience in the future.

GREEN: You're here for the second day of the National Drought Forum. From what you hear in the room yesterday and today, where to next? What do you take away from what you hear from this forum and then put it into meaningful action, as far as drought policy goes?

COLLINS: We've got most of the state Agriculture Ministers at the Drought Forum. I've got myself there as the Federal Minister. We've got other tiers of government there, we've got financial institutions in the room, we've got farming organisations from around the country and from here in South Australia. And they're all providing really valuable feedback, including obviously from farmers and primary producers, about that support that is available, what other support is needed, how we need to tweak the existing support. We'll bring all that together and collate it and work with other tiers of government and with other industries and sectors about what type of support is needed more broadly across sectors and across governments and work to see what we can do to try and adjust some of that or tweak it to make sure that it's fit for purpose going forward.

GREEN: Well, I spoke with the National Farmers Federation last week. They, you know, highlighted some of the issues around drought policy and of the settings that probably could be tweaked. And some of that is around the uncertainty around whose responsibility lays where. And perhaps that's causing some delays in some of this support, drought support being rolled out in a timely manner. Do you concede that there are improvements to current frameworks that can be made?

COLLINS: Obviously, I think a lot of farmers have been really busy with their day-to-day farming life, and for some farmers I don't think there was an understanding about what changed for more than a decade. That the Federal Government assistance now is available all of the time, because obviously, there's various climatic conditions all over the country at various times. We don't actually do a drought declaration anymore. And a lot of farmers are sort of waiting for some sort of formal declaration of drought. And that just isn't the way that it's done now. What we do as the Federal Government is have support available all the time. And then under the National Drought Agreement, the states provide assistance when conditions are harsh, and we've seen various State Governments across the country provide that support to farmers in those areas that are being impacted by those extremely harsh conditions. I understand that a lot of people don't understand that the system has changed or how that it works. One of the things that might come out of the Drought Forum is how we better communicate what tiers of government do what, when that assistance will kick in, and what does it look like.

HOUGH: Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Julie Collins speaking with Selina Green.