Agriculture Minister Ernie Bridge has accused the Liberal Party of using slippery and misleading figures to talk down the agriculture sector in the South West.
Mr Bridge said Liberal leader Richard Court, in a media statement yesterday, had taken ABS statistics for farm indebtedness across the State and wrongly used them to try to paint a picture of gloom in the South West.
"Mr Court claims that almost half of the $421 million increase in total farm indebtedness in WA during the three years to June 1991 occurred in the South West.
"He gives no explanation as to how he arrives at this figure for the South West, which was certainly not sourced from the ABS data, but it is clearly inaccurate.
"The entire South West/Lower Great Southern statistical division includes only 4,600 farms, or about one-third of the total number of farms across the State.
"The region also includes a high proportion of dairy, beef and horticulture farms which have a much lower level of indebtedness than sheep/wheat farms.
"On that basis, it is difficult to see how Mr Court could believe South West farms account for almost half the increase in farm indebtedness."
Mr Bridge said the Liberal leader had also lumped together figures for the three year period to talk about a "rising debt problem".
"There is no doubt that 1989-90 was a very difficult year due to factors including high interest rates, but Mr Court fails to acknowledge that a turnaround in indebtedness has occurred since then," he said.
"He also makes no mention of the $93 million fall in total farm indebtedness in WA between June 1990 and June 1991."
Mr Bridge said the trend in falling indebtedness was expected to continue in 1992-93, mainly as a result of falling interest rates and negligible rises in farm costs.
He noted that ABARE's index of prices paid by WA farmers rose by 1.7 per cent in 1990-91, remained unchanged in 1991-92, and was expected to rise by less than one per cent in 1992-93.
"Even putting these things aside, it is a dangerous exercise to suggest that debt levels can be used to show rising problems," the Minister said.
"Borrowings can also indicate expansion or investment in machinery and other essential items."
Mr Bridge said there was a trend towards broadacre farms in WA becoming bigger, and it was not unexpected that larger farms would have higher debt levels.
The figures for the entire State showed that while average indebtedness per farm had increased marginally ($3,300 per farm), average debt per hectare had fallen in 1990-91.
Mr Bridge said Mr Court had also made the error of talking about 'net' indebtedness, which refers to total debt minus assets, when the ABS figures were based on gross indebtedness, which referred to debt only, without regard to assets.
