Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce last week disclosed the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources had spent $39,208 advertising the Managing Farm Risk program. This information was in a response to a question on notice from opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon, tabled last week. The program is designed to provide one-off rebates to eligible farm businesses to help with upfront costs of applying for a multi-peril insurance policy. The “perils” covered by these insurance policies can include flood, heat stress, wind, frost, lightning, insect infestation or plant disease, which are not covered by a general crop policy, which usually only covers hail and fire. The Weekly Times revealed last week the Managing Farm Risk program had paid out just $107,000 since it was announced in March last year. The amount paid to farmers is a fraction of the $20.2 million allocated to the program over four years. The advertising costs disclosed by Mr Joyce were as a result of two advertising digital and print media campaigns in April last year and February this year. The response to Mr Fitzgibbon also included the amount of unspent budget allocation from the program, which was returned to general government revenue. The amount not spent in 2015-16 from this program was $3.653 million, while so far 2016-17, $3.012 million has not yet been spent with less than a month until the end of the financial year. Mr Fizgibbon said these revelations brought into question the amount really spent under the Government’s Agriculture Competitiveness White paper and was “another example of poor policy development and program design under Barnaby Joyce’s watch”. “Barnaby Joyce must stop claiming he has delivered a $4 billion Agriculture Competitiveness White paper, when we continually see that allocated funding is not spent, or redirected to other programs.” Mr Joyce responded that the Department had commenced a routine review of the program this year and would “monitor and evaluate” its effectiveness in meeting its objectives. Chief executive of multi peril insurance underwriting company Assetinsure, Gregor Pfitzer, said he wasn’t surprised the government rebate program had poor uptake. He said he would like the Federal Government to implement a recommendation of a NSW Government multi-peril crop insurance review, for an upfront premium subsidy. “The facts are clear all over the world, where multi-peril crop insurance is supported by government, it helps make all farm businesses more resilient,” he said. Source - http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au