Barnaby Joyce is today boasting of an additional $40 million allocation to drought affected farmers in Queensland and New South Wales.

The truth is that the Minister is only putting back the $40 million he took from Labors original concessional loans scheme soon after the election.

Withholding the $40 million allowed the allocation to be accounted for in the 2014/15 financial year, effectively putting Joe Hockey's budget obsession ahead of the needs of desperate farming families.

Barnaby Joyce now needs to account for another $40 million the money he didn't spend last financial year under the Abbott Governments $280 million drought concessional loans scheme announced in February. Rural Australia needs a commitment that the second $40 million will not go back to Treasury coffers.

Farming families should not have to pay for the Ministers inability to implement the drought concessional loans scheme in a timely way.