Mr FITZGIBBON (Hunter) (15:16): In regional Australia, our landscapes are burning, our dams are empty, our townships are out of water—or near to it—and our farmers are facing a calamity. Yet these farmers and, indeed, these rural communities have become the Prime Minister's 'forgotten people'. He said, on becoming Prime Minister, that he would make them his No. 1 priority. It was without qualification. It's not as if we didn't see the calamity coming. The Bureau of Meteorology has been warning since 2014 that this current drought was bound to be lengthy, bound to be severe and bound to be very, very hot. To prove just how out of touch the Deputy Prime Minister—currently the Acting Prime Minister—really is, last week he told Ben Fordham on 2GB that it's not as bad as I'm making out, because it rained in 2015! In fact, the Deputy Prime Minister told Ben Fordham's audience that, in some places in 2015, we received too much rain. That is how out of touch this government has become. In six years we've had a drought envoy, a drought coordinator, a drought task force and a drought summit. But what we haven't had is any action from this government on drought. You will recall that the current Prime Minister once led a campaign when he was with the tourism industry. He engaged Lara Bingle to ask the question, 'Where the bloody hell are you?' Rural Australians everywhere are today asking the Prime Minister the same question: 'Where the bloody hell are you in our hour of need?' I recently travelled to Stanthorpe, in the electorate of Minister Littleproud. There I saw empty dams. I saw a town nearly without water; in a few months time, in the absence of meaningful rain, it will be out of water. I saw apple trees pulled from the orchards. Growers told me that they were not planting this season because they were not confident that any rain would be available. Importantly, one or two of them told me that their next big concern is their workforce. They're concerned that their workforce will move elsewhere and, when they move elsewhere, they will never return. This has implications not only for the communities directly affected; this has implications for the country's food security—our very food security. Of course, it's not just farmers, their immediate customers and those who feed off the agriculture sector; this will now fuel the growing inequity between city and bush. It will widen the gap in health. It will widen the gap in education. It will widen the gap in telecommunications. It will widen the gap in infrastructure. I know everyone in this place, of all political persuasions, is having difficulty with the NDIS and this government's mishandling of it. I say to my city colleagues: I know you have plenty of problems, but, as the member for Maribyrnong said during question time, walk a mile in the shoes of a country member and see what a failing NDIS is really about. Again, these are the Prime Minister's 'forgotten people'. We ask ourselves the question: how could this possibly have happened? How could a coalition government so desert its rural and regional constituencies? I'm not sure, but I've got a few ideas. What I do know for sure is that it wouldn't have happened in Black Jack McEwen's day. It wouldn't have happened in Doug Anthony's day. It wouldn't have happened in Tim Fischer's day. The fact is: today's National Party and its leadership are being bullied by the current Prime Minister. They are being bullied into submission. There was a time, I believe, when the Nationals agreed to form a coalition because they wanted to represent the interests of the bush within the government. But, sadly, these days they only sign up to the coalition agreement to be in government. That's the big difference. They have well and truly deserted rural and regional Australia. We all remember that, when the current government first came to office in 2013, the member for New England was the agriculture minister. The first thing he did was to take a wrecking ball to the COAG drought reform process, the agreement reached between the Commonwealth and the states and supported by every farm organisation in the country. The member for New England literally tore up that agreement and abolished the COAG committee—can you believe it?—and that's where progress on drought reform stalled. Our farmers and our rural communities have now lost six years—six years we will never get back. As I pointed out during question time, they said they'd build a dam here, a dam there and a dam everywhere, and of course they haven't even turned a sod, let alone built a dam, in six years. Remember how they wanted the Australian community to know that they were going to be the government that builds dams? But now, having failed to do so, it's not their responsibility; it's up to the states and always has been! Then the member for New England produced an agriculture white paper. He wanted to let a thousand flowers bloom. But we know that the Prime Minister's office got hold of that white paper and produced a vanilla document—again, the National Party being bullied by their senior coalition people. After six years, where is their plan for regional Australia? We thought we'd found out just before the election, when the government decided to create a joint Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation. Remember? It was announced with such big fanfare. Finally we were going to get a strategy for regional Australia. What happened? After all the hard work by those committee members—including the member for Paterson and, I think, the member for Bendigo—the report is still just gathering dust. But don't worry; in this new parliament the Prime Minister has decided to form another committee. It's not called 'regional development and decentralisation' this time; it's just called 'regional development'. Now they'll kick the issue down the road for another couple of years while the committee does its work and then finally reports just in time for the next election so it can be kicked down the road again beyond the next election. The Treasurer is boasting today about the final budget position—a final budget position which I don't think gives this government any credit, particularly when it's coming at the expense of those who are relying on the NDIS. But there's another point to be made about that. What is the point of boasting a budget surplus when it comes at the expense of desperate people living in rural Australia? This government is currently taking farmers off farm household allowance; this government decided you can only get it for a total of four years. So now farmers are being forced of income support by this government—and this minister, in appropriations yesterday, justified that. He said, 'We had an expert review and we're going to follow the expert review.' But what he should have said is that in 2012, when these matters were first discussed and agreed, we could not possibly have conceived what was coming in terms of the severity of this drought. We should adjust, Minister; you can adjust. You can't go to farming families and say they no longer deserve income support notwithstanding the challenges they face. There is one other point to be made. This government went to the last election promising to do nothing. They said: 'Elect us and nothing will change.' Sadly, Minister, that is the one promise your Prime Minister has kept. He has delivered nothing. Mr Littleproud interjecting— Mr FITZGIBBON: Oh, the Future Drought Fund—which comes into effect after July next year. He should tell us when he gets to his feet how much of the Future Drought Fund will go to farmers. Minister, that's where you should start your contribution. You have failed rural and regional Australia.