NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall said Barnaby Joyce, whose electorate overlaps his, did not give him a heads up about a proposed drought package the federal MP has been lobbying for.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But the NSW Agriculture Minister said the plan wasn't on his radar.
"As of last Friday I got no indication from the Commonwealth that any scheme like that was even being considered let alone being on the table," Mr Marshall said.
The scheme, which would require $1.3 billion in funding from both the federal and state taxpayer, would grant each local government area a $10 million bucket of cash to be administered by a committee of local notables.
"You'd have the mayor, maybe the head of a charity, senior stock and station agent, rural financial councillor, state member, federal member, to disperse funds from a $10 million bucket that would be half funded by the state, half funded by the federal government," Mr Joyce told the Armidale Express earlier this week.
Adam Marshall said he had not been given a heads up about the plan, either by Mr Joyce or at a meeting of state and federal ministers in Melbourne last Friday.
The NSW Minister said he had asked half a dozen times for the Federal government to sit down and share information with state ministers about their future drought support plans.
"I want to see the states and the Commonwealth work closely together; in the past that has not happened. I'd love the Commonwealth to actually sit down and share with NSW and the other states what they're planning to do in future so that we can compliment each other," Adam Marshall said.
"It doesn't serve anyone's interest for state government to be doing its own thing and the Commonwealth to go off on a completely different tangent and do theirs.
"But sadly that seems to be the way it's going."
Nonetheless he said he was "very open to having any conversations with the Commonwealth government about any new assistance measure."
Barnaby Joyce said the new proposed package would be more flexible and allow a more tailored response to the local costs of drought on the ground and had passed the Nationals party room without opposition.
READ MORE:
