Farmers Federation wants government to front up cash for drought-escape plan
The National Farmers Federation is pushing six measures to tackle the drought including cash packages so farmers can leave their land.
National
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The National Farmers Federation has written to the Federal Government in a bid to push cash packages so drought-stricken farmers can leave their land.
The group has asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison for six measures to tackle the drought sweeping swathes of regional Australia.
NFF president Fiona Simson believes exit packages could be one tool to help stem growing desperation on some rural properties.
“Sometimes people feel like they’re running out of options and that’s when bad things happen,” she said on Wednesday.
“Sometimes people feel that they’re looking down a never-ending tunnel at the moment because we don’t know when the drought is going to end.”
She said exit grants could help people who “feel like they’ve had enough” with costs like finding somewhere else to live and paying a removalist.
The NFF’s six-point plan for the current drought also includes federal government relief for council rates and pasture lease charges.
Meanwhile, Nationals MPs are pushing for a 10-point plan that includes more money to pay for fodder, municipal rates, and quarantine fees, as well as boarding school fees and costs.
Labor’s agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon is calling on the government to convene a bipartisan drought cabinet and release the drought co-ordinator’s report.
“This morning we learned that the National Farmers’ Federation have a six-point plan for drought, the National Party has a 10-point plan but Scott Morrison has no plan at all,” he said.
HANSON SLAMS PAYMENT CAP
The Federal Government has come under fire over drought funding with its contentious Farm Household Allowance accused of putting welfare recipients ahead of farmers.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the announcement last week that people coming off the allowance, which has a four-year limit, would receive a one off payment of up to $13,000.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson today criticised the cap on the allowance as out of touch with the realities of drought and said the lump-sum payment wasn’t enough.
“The fact is there’s no time limit on drought in Australia,” Ms Hanson told Sky News.
“If we don’t have a time limit on people getting Newstart or other allowances, why are we putting a time limit on farmers?”
Labor focused on the drought in a rowdy Question Time on Tuesday with shadow agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon asking Mr Morrison why he wouldn’t create a bipartisan drought cabinet.
Mr Morrison turned the question around on Labor, saying the party couldn’t “even operate functionally in a shadow cabinet let alone actually participate in an actual cabinet at the end of the day”.
He later said he thought his government’s response was “comprehensive”.
“It is dealing firstly with the assistance directly to farm households whether they be farmers or graziers or others.
“It is investing in the communities that need the support to work through the drought and to provide resilience for the future.”
INFIGHTING SHADOWS FUNDING
The farmer funding announcement was allegedly overshadowed by Coalition infighting, with the National Party reportedly complaining of being left feeling like “swinging d---s”.
Mr Morrison last week made an announcement on radio station 2SM that the government would give people coming off the Farm Household Allowance a one off payment of up to $13,000.
Morrison made the announcement to 2SM host John Laws, after he and Alan Jones – from rival station 2GB – had a fiery discussion on Tuesday where Jones accused him of not doing enough for farmers.
At the same time, Mr Morrison was talking up his latest funding commitment on 2SM, the National Party was holding its own press conference to also announce the funding.
National Party MPs have been left furious by the PM undercutting their announcement.
Sky News reported that a senior party official said: “They’re sh---ing on us. Is (the) PM going to go on TV when Dutton is? We look dopey standing around like swinging d---s at Class B presser because Class A is up at same time”.
A second MP contacted the news organisation and called the PM “arrogant” Sky News reports.
“There are a lot of National MPs on the edge of losing their s---,” they allegedly said.
Under the latest funding announcement, couples coming off the Farm Household Allowance will get $13,000, while singles will get $7500 when they reach the four-year limit of the scheme.
Changes to the allowance will be made through legislation introduced to parliament later today.
The bill will also allow farmers to receive the FHA payment four years in every decade and lift the amount families can earn outside of farming to $100,000 a year.
“Our support is over and above for rural and regional communities affected by drought and it should be because it’s an important part of our economy,” Morrison said.
Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources Joel Fitzgibbon slammed the announcement, saying it only provided farming families with an extra six months of allowance.
“It’s a hard payment to qualify for, and it’s too hard for too many,” he said.
“What we know is that already 600 farming families have had their payment cut off and by Christmas, that’s more likely to be 1100 farming families.”
Minister for Agriculture, Senator Bridget McKenzie said the changes recognised that farmers experience hardships, including droughts, more than once in their lives.
More than 30,000 farmers are expected to benefit.
“Our Government has listened to farmers throughout the independent review and proactively responded to all the recommendations,” she said.
“These changes reflect the nature of contemporary farming businesses – by recognising the reality that much of the income earned off-farm goes straight to servicing debt rather than putting food on the table.”
JONES’ DROUGHT BREAK DOWN
Alan Jones last week broke down on air over the plight of drought-stricken farmers as he renewed his criticism of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
It came after the pair had a tense exchange earlier on Tuesday on the shock jock’s 2GB show over Mr Morrison’s reposes to the crisis.
Addressing the issue on his Sky News program Jones & Credlin, Jones was moved to tears.
“The Prime Minister today on radio with me has disappointed millions of Australians,” Jones said.
“I begged him to provide fodder, water and freight so farmers wouldn’t have to send their breeding stock to slaughter. He just didn’t understand.”
Jones visibly teared up when he referred to a listener named Mary, who had urged him to keep up the good fight.
“We will fight because I have been exactly where the people of Bourke are,” he said. “My old man would be ashamed of me if I didn’t fight. I can’t speak for Canberra.”
Visibly moved, Jones then put his hand up and asked to take a break.
Earlier in Question Time, Mr Morrison revealed none of the multi-billion dollar Future Drought Fund will go towards farmers after being asked by Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon to “admit” it.
“The drought fund, the Future Drought Fund, is not to provide direct financial assistance payment to farmers, it’s there to provide direct support for water resilience projects, to fund for the future,” Mr Morrison replied.
The Drought Future Fund - which was established earlier this year - will begin as a $3.9bn program, but is expected to grow to $5bn by 2028-29.
Mr Morrison was forced to defend the government’s response to the drought after a grilling from Jones on his radio show about a harrowing phone call from a desperate farmer.
Jones played Scott Morrison a distressing phone call he received late last week from a farmer in Bourke in northwestern New South Wales.
In the call, the farmer named as Mark pleaded: “Give us some bloody hope Scott. Tell us that you’re going to build a dam, tell us that you’re going to put a bloody shovel in the ground”.
Speaking through tears, Mark said three of his four children had moved away because of the dry conditions.
“We’re dying out here. My town is dying. The country is dying,” the farmer said.
When pressed by Jones on what he was doing in the “here and now”, Morrison said he was doing “exactly what I told the Australian people I was going to do”.
Morrison highlighted the additional $318.5 million provided in support to farmers in the last financial year which he said included the farm house hold allowance and support for mental health and communities.
“On top of that there’s the investments we’ve been making in water infrastructure,” he said.
Morrison revealed he called Mark yesterday and “had a great conversation”.
“I took him through all the things we were doing,” Morrison told Jones.
“At the end of the conversation, he said to me ‘that is the hope we were looking for Scott’,”
Jones, still not happy with the PM’s response, questioned how any of the programs mentioned they would “feed a cow”.
“They can’t survive today, I’m not talking about long-term viability,” Jones said.
“What can you do today by way of a cash injection to individual farmers to enable them to keep their breeding stock and not send thing to the sale yard for slaughter?”
Morrison reiterated his previous answer about programs paid for with the $318.5 million of funding including farm house hold allowance, counselling services and support with weeds while an exasperated Jones continued to yell: “How does that feed a cow?”
“We can do a lot of things to help people try and get through this,” Morrison said.
“But the government can’t make it rain and the government can’t make live as it was before the drought.”
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Over the weekend it was announced a new reservoir would be built at Dungowan, near Tamworth as part of a $1 billion drought rescue package.
The dam – which will be the first new dam built in the state since 1987 – will be work $480m and secure long-term water supply for 62,200 residents and farms in the Peel Valley.
Without rainfall or intervention, the area is expected to run out of water by June.
The Wyangala Dam will also be expanded by 50 per cent.