Drought farmer aid to get strings attached

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24543889-2702,00.html?from=public_rss

AN expert panel has urged an end to no-strings drought aid, arguing farmers should have a responsibility to attempt to drought-proof their properties before they quality for future taxpayer-funded assistance.

If the Rudd Government takes up the proposal, it will be the first time specific action will be required from farmers in return for receiving public assistance, extending the same mutual obligation principle faced by recipients of unemployment benefits, who are required to attempt to seek work.

The panel, investigating the social effects of drought, has urged the Government to give farmers positive incentives to adjust to climate change, rather than just doling out relief under its exceptional-circumstances program in times of crisis.

The report, It's About People - Changing Perspectives on Dryness, was prepared by a seven-person panel led by AgForce president Peter Kenny and including former Liberal MP Barry Wakelin and representatives of rural groups including the Country Womens Association.

Its release comes as the Productivity Commission continues a review of the exceptional-circumstances drought-relief scheme, under which farmers can receive taxpayer-funded assistance and interest subsidies if their properties are in areas classified as suffering an exceptional weather event.

It also follows a Bureau of Meteorology report released earlier this year warning that climate change would make drought more frequent.

Yesterday's report seems to vindicate Labor's election policy of setting aside $75 million for research grants and subsidies to help farmers adapt to the effect of climate change.

While the Opposition warned there should be no change to existing EC arrangements, Mr Kenny said dryness was part of life on the land and future drought policy must focus on preparing people for its effects.
"The panel suggests for future periods of dryness that the governments consider a mutual responsibility policy that only provides assistance to farm families which have developed an appropriate plan before dryness gets to a point or a trigger point that could be described as beyond their control," Mr Kenny said.

"Perhaps it goes back to the old saying: failing to plan is planning to fail."

Rather than providing crisis-framed assistance to the rural sector, Mr Kenny said, governments should provide incentives in better times to encourage commercially and environmentally responsible management.

Farmers should plan not just for how they would deal with drought, but how they would manage their properties, workforce, farm succession and personal welfare, including family health and education.

Mr Kenny said stress on farmers in drought-affected areas was so great some were making decisions that made their circumstances worse or failed to focus on good farm management.

He said his committee had heard from farmers who resented neighbours receiving EC assistance because it seemed like a reward for having failed to plan for drought.

Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke embraced the report, saying he wanted to make sure the nation was better prepared for the next drought than for previous droughts.

But he added: "We will continue to provide the guarantee for anyone who is currently on levels of assistance that the rules will not change from under them."

Queensland farmer Tony Wearing was unimpressed by the thought that farmers needed to do more to drought-proof properties.

"I know what drought's like," Mr Wearing said. "When it keeps coming, year after year, you learn all about drought."

Twenty thousand sheep once grazed the 50,000ha of mulga country on Mr Wearing's property, Wittenburra, near the far western Queensland town of Eulo.

"We already are efficient," he said. "You have to be efficient to survive. That's self-evident."

Like other farmers in the region who have endured seven years of drought, Mr Wearing is struggling to make ends meet.

"It's tough - we get $700 a fortnight from Centrelink and that's enough to put food on the table, but we still work to keep the property going," he said.

Mr Wearing said farmers were constantly adjusting to meet challenges. "Whether it be drought, a drop in commodity prices or whatever, people do what they can to adjust," he said. "They'll sell sheep and buy cattle to fit in with what the markets are doing.

"I sometimes wonder if there's a bunch of people in a room in Canberra playing marbles and then one of them pipes up and says: 'Here's an idea, let's make farmers more efficient in return for drought assistance'. They think that's clever. I'd love to get them out here and sit them down so they can learn what it's like."

The National Farmers Federation endorsed the report in full.

Don't get me started on farmers, bloody FARMERS.

Something about breweries and p1ss ups comes to mind, but it is just escaping me, perhaps I should become a farmer too.

There is no doubt it is tough work.  The problem is of course this country has long droughts.

What is really needed is good infrastructure and technology to deal with these situations.

Quote:
(become a farmer)


Not in this lifetime muso.
I had my chance to when I married the farmer's daughter, I even asked her if that would be something she would want, to which she replied:

"Are you shitting me? That's a one way ticket to nowhere good"

She is of the mind that if god wanted people to go camping, he would not have invented five star hotels.

She would also be happy in the country, if it was exactly like the city.

Look, there are some good farmers out there, I know, I met one once.

The silly thing is that most of residential area is on potentially good farmland on the coast where is more rain. May be real solution is to relocate city slickers away from coast and make coastal area into productive farmland.

Actually some farmers are stronglyagainst immigration reduction.

Quote:


Growcom is a Farm lobby group

you must not be an australian with anglo-euro heritage, then.
i'll put it bluntly: you must be one these new imported jerk-offs who know nothing about the country and its culture.
DR9.