CANBERRA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison has announced further assistance measures for drought-affected farmers in Queensland.
Morrison on Friday announced the establishment of the North Queensland Livestock Industry Recovery Agency (NQLIA) to help rebuild the agriculture industry in the state.
The agency, which will report directly to the PM, has been charged with developing a long-term plan to rebuild the industry and design program to fix farm and water infrastructure.
It comes after Morrison spent the first week of November 2018 touring rural Queensland and meeting graziers hit hard by the drought, which is among the worst in Australian history.
"This is not about compensation, it's about rebuilding and reconstruction," Morrison told reporters on Friday.
In addition to the new agency, Morrison also announced that his government is working with banks to deliver cheap loans for farmers.
Under the loan scheme, the government would lend Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs) about 2 billion Australian dollars (1.4 billion U.S. dollars) in low-interest loans which they would be required to pass on to eligible farmers.
