Haze over perpetual drought fund

Mystery surrounds the exact measures to be funded from a multi-billion dollar perpetual drought fund rushed through the House of Representatives last night.

Oversight: Drought Minister David Littleproud.

MYSTERY surrounds the exact measures to be funded from a multi-billion dollar perpetual drought fund rushed through the House of Representatives last night.

The $3.9 billion Future Drought Fund is now expected to pass through the Senate unopposed after Labor declared its support for the Bill.

The Greens will call for amendments specifically related to climate change preparedness when the Bill is introduced to the Upper House.

The Bill legislates $100 million to be committed annually from 2020-21 to finance programs to encourage long-term drought adaptation and preparedness.

The programs will be determined by an independent committee.

While the fund starts with an investment of $3.9 billion, the Government said it would grow to a $5 billion long-term drought preparedness scheme.

The Future Drought Fund Bill was opposed by Labor before the election because it redirected funding initially established for infrastructure projects for unspecified drought support and “resilience” measures.

Labor dropped its opposition last week when leader Anthony Albanese declared support “at any level”.

However he called on the Prime Minister to bring the start date forward to the current year and provide funding from appropriations measures to leave the infrastructure fund intact — requests which the Government refused.

The Greens will call for “increased parliamentary oversight” of the role of the drought minister in the fund, arguing the Bill gives the minister too much leeway to pick projects to fund.

Greens agriculture spokeswoman Janet Rice said any spending on drought had to support farmers in building resilience to face climate change.

“It must not end up as a slush fund for big corporate agribusiness, leaving struggling farmers high and dry,” Senator Rice said.

National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson said drought was a part of Australia’s landscape and the Future Drought Fund was rightly focused on “building Australia’s drought resilience”.

“For too long all levels of government have reacted to the impact of drought by taking ad hoc measures in the middle of a drought event,” Ms Simson said.