Opinion: Politicians fail on forgotten drought

Southeast Australia’s drought has been brewing for nearly two years, yet a lacklustre government response has prioritised optics over urgency, writes The Weekly Times editor James Wagstaff.

Twenty four months. Just 86 kilometres.

That’s the sum total of Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s token acknowledgment of the devastating drought gripping vast swathes of the state.

The “forgotten drought”, as desperate farmers and locals have termed it, has been steadily tightening its grip on Victoria for nearly two years. It began in the southwest and has crept inland, decimating water supplies, savaging pastures and crops and crippling rural communities already buckling under the weight of soaring input costs and worsening economic strain.

Yet the Allan government’s response has been slow, fragmented and driven more by optics than urgency. It wasn’t until last week — after months of increasingly desperate calls from farmers and industry leaders — that any meaningful drought support was announced. And even then, it came via a Friday afternoon photo opportunity, paired with a face-saving reversal on another bad policy: the deeply unpopular emergency services levy hike.

Instead of standing with those at the epicentre of the crisis in far southwest Victoria, the Premier and Agriculture Minister Ros Spence chose Ballan — a comfortable 86km from Spring St — as the backdrop for their announcement. A safe, symbolic gesture that did little to acknowledge the scale of the disaster unfolding beyond the metro fringe.

And while any funding is welcome, the package revealed falls far short of what’s needed. It lacks the scale, speed and targeted support that those on the ground have been calling for. For many farmers already drowning in debt and despair, this feels like yet another headline without the proper help.

Premier Allan’s belated appearance at Ballan came just days before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese finally toured drought-affected regions in South Australia — another visit long overdue. Farmers there had been pleading for federal attention for months, if not years.

That he waited until after the federal election to act speaks volumes. A PM’s visit during the dullest campaign in recent memory could have elevated drought to the national stage — a real issue, worthy of real debate — instead of leaving voters with endless speculation over missteps, mishaps or who did or didn’t trip on stage.

But here’s the real question: how is it that, in every drought cycle, we end up right back here — with political leaders needing to be dragged, almost kicking and screaming, to the frontline of the crisis? As if visiting devastated regions, listening to struggling farmers, and responding with urgency isn’t part of their job description.

At what point did the industry that feeds and clothes the world — not to mention pumps billions into the Australian economy — become invisible to those in the corridors of power?

Through their own arrogance, governments seem determined to bite the very hands that feed them. Rural Australia deserves more than fly-in-fly-out photo ops and empty headlines. It deserves urgency. It deserves meaningful action. And above all, it deserves respect.

James Wagstaff is editor of The Weekly Times

Originally published as Opinion: Politicians fail on forgotten drought