Member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter has called farm debt one of the biggest issues facing regional and rural communities in evidence to a parliamentary committee this week.
Mr Katter was speaking via videolink from Cloncurry at the committee hearings into the state government’s Farm Business Debt Mediation Bill and the KAP's Rural and Regional Adjustment (Development Assistance) Amendment Bill on Tuesday.
Mr Katter said debt mediation would inject life back into country towns.
“All the farmers’ income is locked up being used to pay off debt,” Mr Katter said.
“It’s not being freed up to generate income in towns.”
Mr Katter said under his party’s bill the increased drought concessional loans would be the key component to assisting and uplifting these towns.
“This bill creates a vehicle that can accommodate a separate loan book which will act as a circuit breaker for this cycle of debt,” he said.
Mr Katter said the government's alternative mediation bill was not as strong as their bill.
“The Farm Debt Mediation Bill is a nice suggestion, but we need a big tool that can provide financial stimulus to agriculture in the state, to allow it to become the economic provider it was in the past," he said.
Also giving testimony to the hearing in Cloncurry was accountant Peter O’Regan who said he had a lot of experience in dealing with farmers with debt problems.
Mr O’Regan said the government’s bill was based on a similar bill in New South Wales which had some success but he recommended a national approach and farmers should also take part in scheme’s such as AgForce’s BMP (best management practice).
He said the bill should take into account recommendations from the Chartered Accountants “Farm Debt Mediation" document from July 2016 which stated the causes of farm debt were as complex and as varied as the farm operations that faced them.
He also told the hearing that the bill needed to address livestock mortgages which he called “a sleeper issue”.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
