"Of the entitlements that have been approved, 76 percent have been paid", Mr Musgrave said, "and we are expecting that the remaining 24 percent will have their payments within the next couple of weeks as dairy farmers progressively provide us with their bank account details."

"The two percent of claims still to be processed are mainly subject to legal proceedings and the processing of deceased estates. These claims are being progressed as the required information is provided to the DAA."

"It takes around 40 days from the time that dairy farmers receive their Notice of Decision to the time that we can authorise a payment to be made to their bank account", Mr Musgrave said. "This includes time for postage, processing, and a statutory period of 28 days in which if there are any problems, the dairy farmer can request a review of our decision."

"To date, we have received relatively few requests for reviews, which has meant that we can spend the majority of our time getting the last applications processed and more payments made."

"We have stuck with our rigorous assessment procedure which has been working very well and which I believe is one of the main reasons why we have had so very few requests for review", Mr Musgrave said.

The Commonwealth Government has recently announced an extension to the cut-off date for return of farm business assessment (FBA) declaration forms to the DAA. The cut-off date is 17 May 2001, however Mr Musgrave advised that the few remaining dairy farmers who need to return their forms should do so early in order that they can begin to receive their payments as well.

"We need to have received the declaration form at the DAA before we can authorise any dairy farmers' payments. We will continue to accept FBA declaration forms up until 17 May, however early return will enable payments to be made at the earliest possible time", Mr Musgrave said.

"The extension to the FBA cut-off has been made by the Minister for Agriculture and the DAA will adhere to these guidelines", Mr Musgrave concluded.

ENDS

Further information:
Ian Harvey
Telephone 03 9507 2315