Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 5:36:22 to 5:44:48
Officials provide an update on the $139.8 million assistance package following the ban on live sheep exports, including expenditure and program construction.
Topics: Live animal exports, Exports
Speakers: Speaker 20, Speaker 13
>> Senator Brockman. Yep. Thank you, sir. >> Uh just want to move on to uh the sheep industry transition assistance package, please. >> You got good to go. Got the right people at the table. Excellent. Um so in relation to the uh ban of live sheep export uh which has already had a significant and devastating impact on my home state of Western Australia. Can you update the uh the government's $139.8 million sheep industry industry transition assistance package? Uh how much has been spent to the latest reporting period? I I'm assuming it's not going to be to today,
but >> certainly Senator uh so perhaps it's useful to sort of just uh uh present this information in a way that's useful in terms of how the package is being constructed based on sort of the code
design. >> I'm going to go through each section of the package. So I'm I'm and I know I know how it's constructed. >> So I'm just trying to get a broad picture on I don't I don't want to tell you how to answer, but just trying to get a broad picture on how much has been spent today and what's still to be
spent. Uh well the headline uh expenditure to date at by the end of December last year was 35.9.
>> So is that the end of the calendar year? >> Yes.
>> Sorry. Sorry. That was
>> $35.9 million. >> 35.9. Um, can you um on notice and I I don't expect this here because it'll take some time and um uh I'm happy for you to to do this uh um later on because I assume you'd have this as a table though. A breakdown of the 139.8 8 uh by program forecast funding the amount contracted as of say the end of December last year and uh the amount spent as of that same date.
>> Certainly possible.
>> Certainly. >> Thank you. Um do we have a breakdown of how much of that 35.9 has gone into the hands of uh impacted sheep farmers? So actual
producers. >> Uh so the way that uh package is constructed is the majority of the funding about $90.3 million uh is is sort of direct to individual businesses. So that includes the farm business transition grants program, livestock transporters. Uh there's a there's a small community program fund as well as well as supply chain capacity uh program which is focused on capital works on farm and at processes and in feed lots. So this this accounts for the bulk of the transition package. They these are direct business facing uh investments. Uh we have a large portion of those programs are currently going through final grant decision-m uh processes. Uh so we'll see that expenditure scale up uh quite quickly in the in the coming weeks and months. Uh I guess to get to the crux of your question of of that $90.3 million that I'm referring to, $19 million has been expended. Uh and then there's another component of the of the package, $27.5 million which is focused on market access. uh obviously the work of the transition advocate, the development of industry strategy, uh grants to support export market development, uh and of that $27.5 million, $ 8.1 million has been uh expended. So that's an example of where uh funding is flowing. And as I said, I understand there's a lot of interest in those direct um farm business uh facing uh grant programs. And the way we've phased uh the implementation of the package based on the the industry consultations we we undertook 12 months ago uh was to do a lot of that uh foundational uh work around developing an industry strategy and commissioning that work. uh the work around uh with uh the shearing association WA uh and also uh grow group alliance to support extension work. So those were projects that we could commission quite quickly uh which and they kicked off uh I guess earlier this financial year. So that work was prioritized at the request of industry and then that enabled us to uh get a lot of the grant programs for businesses and processes underway and those grant programs went live uh around October last year and we're at the final stages of those grants being assessed which will see a lot of that grant funding uh sort of flow. So I guess I'm trying to paint a picture of kind of the sequencing of how the the package has been rolled out. has been quite deliberate and purposeful in the way we've constructed it based on uh what industry told us were priorities through the code design process last year.
>> Well, having having spoken to a lot of people in the industry, I'm not sure they're there as happy with the consultation as you seem to be. But given that that 90.3 that you talked about, of which 19.3 has been spent um that also includes the shearing trans transporters and the supply chain,
correct? Uh it includes uh includes the the grant program that's available to livestock transporters. Uh doesn't include the shearing uh program, I don't believe.
>> So that 90.3 doesn't include the
shearing. >> Uh no it doesn't. No. >> So it includes >> So the vast majority of
>> supply chain >> uh yes >> and farm businesses.
>> Yeah, >> that's correct. >> Anything else? Uh there's a community well-being program as well that's also
included in >> So how much of that 19.3 million has actually gone to farm businesses, farmers producing sheep?
>> Uh well, as I said, the the bulk of that uh funding is for grant programs that have recently closed towards the end of last year and are currently going through uh decision-m processes and assessments. There's a lot of conversations between officials and individual farmers that have made applications through those programs to seek additional information and clarify some of the information provided uh through those uh applications and that's what we're prioritizing at the moment and and similarly in in WA where deep officials are implementing the supply chain program as well. Due respect,
yeah, you've stated that and I understand that. I'm trying to get to the and we know what the total quantum of the package is. So, we know how much the industry is going to get. >> Mhm. >> So, I'm trying to work out how much has gone to farmers as of December.
Uh, I'd have to check, but I suspect that the the majority of that funding, the $19 million that I referred to is uh a a lump sum payment, if you like, to WA who are implementing the supply chain capacity uh program. >> So, that's going to processes. >> It will go to processes and farmers and feed loters of sort of the eligible businesses in that in that grant program. It's currently going through the final stages of decision- making. So you don't know or you can't you >> uh well WA uh WA counterparts are now finalizing that program. So grant funding has not flowed uh from that
program but they're in the >> none of that 19.3 has flowed to
anybody >> uh certainly only to community uh well-being sort of uh uh providers that have been contracted by WA. So the the funding that I've referred to includes a bulk payment to WA to enable them to finalize the grant program that they're administering.
>> So to the best of your understanding, has any of that 19.3 million flowed onto the ground? >> Uh no, they're in the final stages of no
dollars have been spent >> from that particular funding component. That's correct. But as I said, there's there's quite a lot of activity underway at the moment to finalize uh grant programs that will see funding flow
quite quickly. So no dollars have gone to farmers on the ground. Um I refer to the government's 30 billion uh 30 million farm business transition assistance program. >> Um how many applications have there been?