Drought-stricken farmers need money, stockfeed and support
TODAY we are asking the NSW government to properly drought declare the parts of the state that are in drought, for the federal government to join with the states to provide freight subsidies to help farmers bring in feed to keep their animals alive.
Opinion
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- DROUGHT SPECIAL: Farmers crippled by drought demand major overhaul of rescue packages
- DROUGHT SPECIAL: Life on the land and the battle to save farming
- DROUGHT SPECIAL: Desperate graziers go in search of food for cattle
RAIN, rain, blessed rain. That’s what the farmers of drought-crippled NSW need, right?
Well, yes. They need widespread, gradual, sustained, soaking rain.
But almost more than that — and certainly with more immediacy — they need money, stockfeed and psychological support. They need new shoes for their kids and groceries to put a meal on the table. They need tiny luxuries like a box of jelly crystals to make their kids’ day. They need cash.
What they don’t need is another loan.
And that’s the problem with much of the “assistance” the federal and state governments offer in times of weather crisis such as the severe drought now afflicting the state.
A declaration that an area is officially “in drought” means, among other things, that farmers are eligible for interest-free loans for a period of seven years.
But farmers don’t want more debt — and certainly not if it is to be administered by the very banks presently trying to explain to the Royal Commission why they apparently routinely foreclosed upon and mistreated farmers who came to them for help.
Farmers are scared of banks, and rightly so.
They’re also sick and tired of the asset trap they find themselves in. If the farmland is worth more than $2.55 million, which would hardly buy you a family home in most parts of Sydney, farmers can’t get access to modest welfare payments known as the Farm Household Allowance. That’s because the government considers them rich, in effect.
But if you’re trying to feed a family of five, the theoretical value of the property is totally irrelevant when the land is so dry you are forced to shoot the stock and let the crops wither. Nobody’s going to buy that “asset”.
This week new legislation passed extending the allowance payments from three to four years: but even the simple act of restocking a flock of sheep or a herd of cattle to productive levels can take far longer. Farmers want meaningful assistance from the government — money with no strings attached.
They also want some real acknowledgment of the suffering they’re enduring, but it doesn’t feel like city folk really get it when only 19.5 per cent of NSW is considered officially “in drought”, even though as much as 99 per cent of the state is bone-dry a metre deep into the soil, with just a few drops of rain in months and months.
Today we are asking the NSW government to properly drought declare the parts of the state that are in drought, for the federal government to join with the states to provide freight subsidies to help farmers bring in feed to keep their animals alive, and for the Commonwealth to relax the assets test applied to farmers so more of them can access emergency welfare payments known as Farm Household Allowance.
DROUGHT SPECIAL: Eyes on the sky: ‘There’s no relief in sight’
DROUGHT SPECIAL: Suicide danger and the emotional scars of the big dry
DROUGHT SPECIAL: Helping the stricken not as hard as you’d think
DROUGHT SPECIAL: Haunting poem is a bush battle cry
Funnily enough, the leader of the NSW Nationals John Barilaro was too busy to speak to The Sunday Telegraph about the drought special we’re presenting today. We repeatedly approached him for comment but after back-to-back meetings on Friday morning he went on holidays from 10am and didn’t want to answer our drought questions.
Disappointing? That’s hardly the word, Mr Barilaro. It seems like the behaviour of someone who thinks this is not a problem, or at least not his problem.
Despite that, we are confident that once Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mr Barilaro’s boss, Gladys Berejiklian, appreciate the scale of the natural and human disaster being visited upon NSW, they will act.
They can’t make it rain — but they can make things a hell of a lot better than they are today.