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April 23, 2022

The Federal LNP’s weak-willed attempt to address the farming finance crisis engulfing Australian agriculture is akin to a ‘band-aid on a bullet hole’ and will do little to assist those most discriminated against by commercial lending practices, Katter’s Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter has said.

This week, during a debate with Labor’s agriculture spokeswoman Julie Collins at the National Press Club in Canberra, Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud detailed an LNP election promise to launch a $75 million pilot scheme aimed at encouraging more people into agriculture.^[1]

If the LNP wins Government after 21 May, the scheme will see the Commonwealth guarantee 40 per cent of an eligible new farmer’s commercial loan up to a maximum value of a million dollars.

Mr Katter, who has long lamented the failings of the commercial lending sector to adequately service rural Australian industries and communities, said he acknowledged the plan’s good intent but that it regrettably fell short. 

“This is basically a loan that enables farmers to get a loan, much like the second mortgage offerings we already see with the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority, which are manifestly inadequate. Farmers don’t want a second mortgage,” he said.

“To access this new future farmer guarantee scheme you need to already have on-farm experience, have a deposit and be a ‘sound lending prospect’ according to the criteria of the commercial banks – well, how long is a piece of string?

“The short version of my issue with this policy is that it is very likely to make the rich, richer, and doesn’t give the battler a go. The lender will ultimately still encounter the same bias on the bank’s balance sheet.”

Mr Katter re-iterated his calls for the Federal Government to establish a Rural Development Bank that would strategically fund loans that advance rural industries and communities in their entirety.

“The only reason they won’t go the whole hog and fund the entire loan is that they’re economic rationalists who can’t abide a government facility operating in a commercial market,” the Traeger MP said.

“They’re letting ideology get in the way of national interest - the Minister still hasn’t got the memo that the era of the economic rationalist is coming to an end.”

[1] Seeds of hope - loan scheme would put 'future farmers' back on the land (inqld.com.au)