Interview with Warwick Long, ABC Country Hour

WARWICK LONG. HOST: I spoke to Minister Collins earlier today.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: We're providing certainty for farmers in terms of the Regional Investment Corporation. The Regional Investment Corporation provides concessional loans to farmers, particularly in times of drought, but also in a range of other loan products. This is an additional $1 billion boost and it means that the Regional Investment Corporation will be able to be extended. It was due to finish on 30th of June next year, but this means that it will be able to continue on.

LONG: This isn't about providing assistance right now, it's about providing surety of the, of the drought assistance model from the Federal Government.

COLLINS: Well, obviously funding is available right now under the Regional Investment Corporation and we are seeing an increase of applications from South Australia and Victoria, particularly as those areas continue to recover from drought and be impacted by drought. This means that these loans will be available on an ongoing basis past the 30th of June next year. And it's a billion dollars in additional funding, which is great news for those farmers.

LONG: The Victorian Farmers Federation says this is not a new initiative, it's simply a decision not to shut down an existing source of drought support and it doesn't actually cost the government anything. What do you say to that criticism?

COLLINS: What I would say is that we are putting in the additional money. We know, as I said, that there is demand for these products. We're also expanding the criteria of the Regional Investment Corporation loans and we'll legislate that. We want to work with farmers and primary producers about what does that look like, because we want to also make them more resilient to climate impacts of the future and help them with their own farm infrastructure and changing farming practices to help them become more resilient to the changing climate in the future.

LONG: It's additional money. But you make it back through loans don't you?

COLLINS: Over a period of time, we do eventually, but certainly we do have other funding available, such as the Farm Household Allowance, for instance, which is cash payments that are provided to farmers and to people that need it at that point in time.

LONG: You in fact make more money on it because there's interest charged on these loans. It's low interest, it's lower than bank interest, but there's still interest charged. There's been calls from farming groups to look at providing no interest loans. Is that something the government will look at?

COLLINS: Well, as we've said, we will continue to engage with farmers and to talk to farmers and primary producers about what the loans look like. As I said, we will need to legislate changes to the Regional Investment Corporation to continue and to widen the scope of it.

LONG: No interest or a no interest period isn't something the government's prepared to look at?

COLLINS: What we've said is we want to make sure that we're in a position to be able to administer those loans and to get yes decisions or no decisions to farmers really quickly. As I said, they are concessional loans. How concessional and what that looks like, we continue to engage with farmers on.

LONG: What about the time it takes farmers to access these loans? There's been criticism there saying it takes up to 118 days and takes even longer in paperwork on farm to access those loans. Can something be done there?

COLLINS: Well certainly we are improving that. What we've done is work with the Regional Investment Corporation and they're now able to give an answer on whether or not a loan will be able to proceed within 50 days to provide farmers with that certainty. And we continue to work with the Regional Investment Corporation to improve those turnaround times. We also, of course, are working with them to make sure that the settlement period can be improved. But obviously that depends on the individual, because of the complexity of some of these farming loans and the structure of some of them. They will take a length of time depending on how complex they are.

LONG: What would have happened to the RIC loan system if this money wasn't provided? Would have it just ended in 2026.

COLLINS: It absolutely would have, there would have been no new loans from 2026. The other thing of course is that interest rates were actually due to go up on the 1st of August and our government moved to stop them from increasing while we continue to engage with farmers about what do the concessional loans look like going forward.

LONG: How much of this $1 billion is for farmers and how much is for other supports like recently announced for South Australian people affected by the algal bloom?

COLLINS: Well, at the moment it is of course entirely primary producers and the additional boost is about making sure that there's plenty of funds there going forward. This has always been a demand driven program. We don't expect that to change. And certainly, as I've said in terms of the algal bloom and ecological events that are climate impact like we're seeing with the algal bloom, we'll work with people in relation to the design of that product in coming weeks and months as well. What we want to do is make sure we take the time to get it right, but do it as quickly as we can do it, understanding that we need to get that support out as quickly as we can.

LONG: So, the algal bloom support money in loans, is that coming from the Regional Investment Corporation?

COLLINS: It will be coming from the Regional Investment Corporation. But as I said -

LONG: So, is that coming out of this pot of money?

COLLINS: Well, it will be coming out of money available through the Regional Investment Corporation and as I've said, there's an additional billion dollars going in. There is still some existing money in there at the moment.

LONG: So, you're not double dipping on an announcement here?

COLLINS: Absolutely not.

LONG: By saying you're providing the algal bloom support last week and now you're saying extra drought support and all the money's coming from the same place?

COLLINS: No, absolutely not. This is additional money going in and as you know, the Regional Investment Corporation is primarily for primary producers. To give you sort of an idea in relation to the support that's available for instance, for the algal bloom. At the moment, it's available for aquaculture if you're a farmer in aquaculture in South Australia, but it's not if you're a wild catch fisher in South Australia. So, that's the type of thing that we're looking at adding in terms of widening the scope. But primarily it's for primary producers on land, but also for aquaculture farmers currently already.

LONG: The funding here keeps the Regional Investment Corporation operating after 2026. How many years extra of RIC does $1 billion provide for?

COLLINS: Well, it will provide, we estimate for at least three years. But as I've said this is a demand driven program. And certainly we expect the Regional Investment Corporation to go on into the future.

LONG: That is Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins talking to you about the increase in $1 billion in funding to the Regional Investment Corporation, which provides low interest loans to farmers dealing with drought and also primary producers affected from the algal bloom, as we were discussing there.