Pay to walk away among raft of NFF drought proposals

National Farmers’ Federation seeks financial help for people to leave the land and re-skill.

UNVIABLE farmers hit by drought would be paid to walk off their land under a plan put to the Federal Government.

The National Farmers’ Federation has taken the unprecedented step of asking the Government to consider offering exit packages to farmers and their families if they are consistently not profitable.

The request comes on top of a national drought policy, which the NFF presented to the Government last Wednesday, and will be publicly released today.

This long-term policy contains a detailed list of small business preparedness measures and taxation incentives to help farmers better structure their businesses to withstand future droughts.

The NFF has listed six urgency measures for the current drought to help distressed farmers and farm businesses.

These include asking the Government to consider providing exit packages to those farmers who no longer see their farms as viable, with an expectation those farms would be sold.

NFF chief executive officer Tony Mahar said the NFF was not suggesting farmers be forced off their land.

It is understood any exit packages would give farmers an option to exit farming with dignity and financial assistance and be provided the chance to re-skill and access training.

The Federal Government would not comment specifically on the urgency measures until they were considered by Cabinet.

The Howard Government made exit packages available to farmers towards the end of the millennium drought but the take-up was low.

The NFF has also requested dole-like payroll payments for at least 12 months, paid at the Newstart allowance rate, to help farm businesses retain employees for the duration of the current drought.

It has also requested urgent local council rate relief, with the Government providing loans to councils which then defer farm rates for a defined period, to be paid by farmers after the drought breaks.

It has requested top-up payments for isolated children’s allowances and funding for rural schools and preschools and wants the Government to consider an interest-free period for the small number of farmers who have taken out a drought loan from the Regional Investment Corporation.

NFF also called for immediate urgency measures to eradicate ballooning numbers of feral pigs.

The NFF has also presented the Government national drought plan, which includes expanding the existing farm management deposit scheme to enable access to farm businesses, contractors and agriculture-dependent businesses.

FMDs are currently only available to individuals.

The plan also recommended a national farm business resilience program to help build business acumen and financial literacy and has called for greater investment in weather forecasting infrastructure.

The NFF recommended full tax deductibility for financial advice leading to adoption of risk management tools such as insurance or futures contracts.

It wants the Government to provide pest and weed management support during and after droughts, and a workforce retention program so rural businesses can keep staff.

It has called for a national drought committee to oversee drought relief measures.

Drought Minister David Littleproud said the Government agreed with the NFF’s observation of this drought being the worst on record and would “continue to be agile in our response to this drought”.

He said the Government was supporting farmers “in the here and now with immediate assistance”, such as $3000 cash payments to families under the recently announced Drought Communities Support Initiative and was also providing a support program for drought-affected communities.