Barnaby Bank progressing farm dividends despite Labor obstruction

“Clearly people could not be appointed to the RIC board before legislation passed the parliament,” the Agriculture and Water Resources Minister said in response to opposition criticism.

“Labor tried to undermine the recruitment process at every step, including announcing they would abolish the Regional Investment Corporation if elected.

“There has been a huge number of quality applicants interested in serving on the Regional Investment Corporation board.

“An announcement will be made in due course regarding the members of the RIC board.”

Mr Littleproud’s response comes as Labor continued attacking the RIC – also known as the “Barnaby Bank” – despite it being broadly welcomed by the Australian farm sector as a means of expediting the delivery of drought support loans to farmers in distress.

It was a core election policy pledge by the Coalition government during the 2016 election campaign to remove state based bureaucracies, via a federal agency based within the Agriculture Department, to provide $2 billion in concessional farm loans.

The RIC will also administer the $2b National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility which will aid farm output and economic activity by assisting the building of dams to enhance water provision for farm production.

It will be established at Orange in regional NSW in a move the Nationals say aims to enhance the creation of a regionally based, specialist agri-finance region by being co-located with other similar organisations.

But Labor has continued its attack on the RIC saying with a statement this week it will cost $28 million dollars to be established within the state seat of Orange which the Nationals lost last year - to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party - having previously held for 69 years.

Expressions of interest for RIC board appointments opened on May 26 last year and closed on June 23.

In a statement this week, Labor’s shadow agriculture minister said information was sought, on December 14 last year under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, regarding the RIC board appointments, through information about correspondence from the Department and the then Minister (Barnaby Joyce) and his staff.

“Since then the minister’s department has provided excuse after excuse as to why they cannot provide the information sought,” the statement said.

“Correspondence from the minister’s Department dated March 14, 2018 (following an internal review) states that my FOI continues to be denied on the grounds that the Department doesn’t have the time to do the work.

“I consider it is important to know why there is so much correspondence that the Department would struggle to assess it all - there are only four part-time board positions and one part-time Chair position.”

The statement said the FOI decision maker stated that “I do not accept that the public interest in the information requested warrants jeopardising the function of establishing the RIC”.

“I will be seeking that the decision be reviewed by the Australian Information Commissioner,” the Labor statement said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources said the RIC’s legislation passed the parliament on February 6 this year and was a “crucial point” in the board appointment process, providing the government with the required certainty to finalise candidate selections and make the appointments.

“The board has a critical role to play in establishing and overseeing the RIC - setting up a board with the right balance of skills and expertise requires careful consideration,” the spokesperson said.

“Finalising the appointment process is a priority for the government and announcements are expected in the near future.

“The department processes all FOI requests in accordance with the provisions of the FOI Act and taking into account the FOI guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner and circumstances of each case.

“The department seeks to assist all applicants with their requests, including scope and clarity considerations.”

Andrew Gee, the Nationals federal member for Calare which contains Orange said the RIC would “really benefit country communities” and improve the administration of concessional loans to farmers and help to build “badly needed” water infrastructure in country communities.

“This is something that will be warmly welcomed in country Australia, and for the critics who say, ‘Nah, we don't need it’, they're talking a different language from people who live in the country, because folks in the bush know how important this type of facility is, how important these concessional loans are, and they know that it helps build our country communities and keep them together,” he said after the enabling legislation passed the Senate in February after being held up for several weeks.

“It's been disappointing that you've had some knockers out there, like (Labor Shadow Agriculture Minister) for example, who said it was pork barrelling for Orange - I totally reject that.

“We're talking about a decentralisation program here that country people all over Australia welcome.

“We know the value of moving these departments out of the big cities, out of Sydney and Canberra, and into the regions and helping our regions to develop and grow.

“I think this is a really important development, and to the knockers, they can keep on knocking, but we're in the business of building regional Australia and that's precisely what we're doing with the passing of this legislation through the Senate.”