Mr BALDWIN - 1996-11-19
The Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries has applied for special drought assistance from the Commonwealth on behalf of Centralian pastoralists. Has the federal minister responded to the application?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it was with some dismay that I received a letter from the federal Minister for Primary Industries and Energy last week, advising me that the Northern Territory's application for drought exceptional circumstances assistance had been rejected once again. I say that I received it with some dismay because, following the previous rejection and with the continuing drought conditions in central Australia, the government and many of the pastoralists
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in the Alice Springs region were of the view that they were indeed suffering from drought in exceptional circumstances. It is our view that drought of this magnitude has occurred only twice before in recorded history: in the 1920s and in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In relation to the event, and the time between the events, it certainly meets the 20- to 25- year time scale that the Commonwealth imposes on exceptional circumstances drought.
The honourable minister has based his rejection on advice given to him by the Rural Adjustment Scheme Advisory Committee (RASAC) that the Northern Territory used a cumulative departure from the rainfall mean rather than a percentile measure of drought severity. RASAC advised me that neither the Bureau of Resource Science nor the Bureau of Meteorology considers that a cumulative departure from the rainfall mean is an appropriate indicator of exceptional drought. One could accept that statement as an indication that it may be that the application from the Northern Territory did not meet the criteria. However, the application and the statistics used in the application are based on a program that is provided by the Bureau of Meteorology on the advice of the federal Department of Primary Industries and Energy. It is a Drought Macros User's Guide. In formulating our rainfall statistics, we use the section that relates to accumulated anomalies. All this does is describe how to put it together.
RASAC was invited to the Alice Springs area. While the committee was there, a number of stations that it intended to visit could not be visited because the area was suffering the worst dust storms experienced in many years. Movements of light aircraft were restricted and the committee was able to visit only a couple of stations.
It is our intention now to readdress the meteorological data and to provide it in a format different from that we have used previously. Officers of my department and representatives of the pastoral industry will be travelling to Canberra this week to arrange meetings with RASAC, and hopefully with the minister, to put the case once again. There can be no doubt that the drought being experienced in parts of central Australia, especially in the south and to the west and north-west of Alice Springs, is indeed an exceptional circumstance. There can be no doubt that this circumstance has been experienced previously in recorded history only in the late 1950s and early 1960s and, as I said, in the 1920s. We will also be putting the case that statistics and methods used for determining drought in the more temperate parts of Australia do not and cannot necessarily apply to the seasonal conditions experienced in the central and more arid northern areas of Australia. The seasonal conditions are different,
the industry is different, and the effectiveness of rainfall at various times of the year is different. I remain confident that, following the provision of further information to the federal minister and the Rural Assistance Advisory Committee, drought exceptional circumstances funding will be forthcoming.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it was with some dismay that I received a letter from the federal Minister for Primary Industries and Energy last week, advising me that the Northern Territory's application for drought exceptional circumstances assistance had been rejected once again. I say that I received it with some dismay because, following the previous rejection and with the continuing drought conditions in central Australia, the government and many of the pastoralists
Page 1757
in the Alice Springs region were of the view that they were indeed suffering from drought in exceptional circumstances. It is our view that drought of this magnitude has occurred only twice before in recorded history: in the 1920s and in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In relation to the event, and the time between the events, it certainly meets the 20- to 25- year time scale that the Commonwealth imposes on exceptional circumstances drought.
The honourable minister has based his rejection on advice given to him by the Rural Adjustment Scheme Advisory Committee (RASAC) that the Northern Territory used a cumulative departure from the rainfall mean rather than a percentile measure of drought severity. RASAC advised me that neither the Bureau of Resource Science nor the Bureau of Meteorology considers that a cumulative departure from the rainfall mean is an appropriate indicator of exceptional drought. One could accept that statement as an indication that it may be that the application from the Northern Territory did not meet the criteria. However, the application and the statistics used in the application are based on a program that is provided by the Bureau of Meteorology on the advice of the federal Department of Primary Industries and Energy. It is a Drought Macros User's Guide. In formulating our rainfall statistics, we use the section that relates to accumulated anomalies. All this does is describe how to put it together.
RASAC was invited to the Alice Springs area. While the committee was there, a number of stations that it intended to visit could not be visited because the area was suffering the worst dust storms experienced in many years. Movements of light aircraft were restricted and the committee was able to visit only a couple of stations.
It is our intention now to readdress the meteorological data and to provide it in a format different from that we have used previously. Officers of my department and representatives of the pastoral industry will be travelling to Canberra this week to arrange meetings with RASAC, and hopefully with the minister, to put the case once again. There can be no doubt that the drought being experienced in parts of central Australia, especially in the south and to the west and north-west of Alice Springs, is indeed an exceptional circumstance. There can be no doubt that this circumstance has been experienced previously in recorded history only in the late 1950s and early 1960s and, as I said, in the 1920s. We will also be putting the case that statistics and methods used for determining drought in the more temperate parts of Australia do not and cannot necessarily apply to the seasonal conditions experienced in the central and more arid northern areas of Australia. The seasonal conditions are different,
the industry is different, and the effectiveness of rainfall at various times of the year is different. I remain confident that, following the provision of further information to the federal minister and the Rural Assistance Advisory Committee, drought exceptional circumstances funding will be forthcoming.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016