As the clock ticks down on the 60-day timeline set for the state’s Rural Debt and Drought taskforce to enquire into rural finance and banking practices, most of this week was spent on political maneuvering in parliament.
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A move by the opposition on Tuesday night to change the ALP’s Rural Debt and Drought taskforce to a select committee failed on party lines, and has been described by taskforce chair, Rob Katter as “the usual suspects failing to address a huge problem”.
On Tuesday night the LNP put a motion to parliament to upgrade Labor’s taskforce to a select committee, saying it would have “real teeth to call for data on debt from rural lenders”.
Shadow Agriculture Minister Deb Frecklington said the motion, voted down on party lines, would have encouraged lenders to provide information to the Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority to conduct a rural debt survey, which hasn’t been done since 2011.
Taskforce chair Rob Katter voted with the government to defeat the motion, saying while he appreciated the virtues of the opposition’s motion, committees had “been and gone and had a good run, telling us what to do”.
“The taskforce won’t be bound by bureaucratic regulations. A parliamentary committee will only hold things up more,” he said.
Ms Frecklington said nothing had happened in 22 days, and queried its bipartisanship, saying the government would not let the LNP choose its own taskforce representative.
Mr Katter said if they put up an MP from the Gold Coast or similar, he would have to ask whether that would contribute to what the taskforce was trying to achieve.
Other members have been decided, including the ALP’s Jim Madden, Russell Lethbridge from AgForce, local government representatives Stuart Mackenzie, Quilpie, Donna Stewart, Balonne, and Emma Forster, Winton, and economic consultants Ben Rees and Mark McGovern.
“We couldn’t include every lobby group – there’s got to be some rationalisation,” he said. “We want to go after solutions that cross industries.”
Mr Katter welcomed the announcement this week of the terms of reference for the enquiry, saying they now had the tools in place to influence generational change.
“The broad terms of reference set out will serve as the foundation for the reconstruction of this sector,” he said.
Its scope allows it to look at policy options in relation to the extent of financial problems faced by agriculture, identifying the causes, strategies to rectify the problems, the impacts such initiatives might have, their desirability, and the adequacy of existing financial systems to fund policy solutions.
Mr Katter said he was expecting to hear stories of entrenched difficulties caused by years of policy neglect.
“Through this we will prove a Reconstruction Board is the right solution,” he said.
Despite these comments, Mr Katter said the taskforce was for listening.
“Quite separately, Rob Katter will be fighting for a reconstruction board, but I would be pretty surprised if people didn’t see that rural debt was the main issue. I hope that’s where it ends up.”
