Our primary industry ministers throughout the country have a golden opportunity on Friday, October 26 to stand up for rural Australia and put in place a framework which will assist farmers and our agriculture industry manage future extreme weather conditions.
They will be meeting with the Federal Minister for Agriculture on this day to decide on the future of drought policy.
Encouragingly, govern-ments are favourable towards household income support. However, we must ensure that any asset test allows farmers to preserve their farm assets for future income generation. We have also had very positive discussions around the issue of preparedness and self-reliance, and constructive ways that governments might be able to assist farmers in this way.
Disappointingly, business support is not attracting the same interest from government. This forms an important part of any drought policy and we want state and federal ministers to commit to investigating business support options.
We also want to see improvements in farm management deposits, skills and training, investment in tools and technologies and social support measures.
Current drought policy measures have played a vital role in helping rural families and businesses through the recent drought.
The challenge for govern-ments is to design a policy that delivers better outcomes than the previous one.
Fiona Simson
President
NSW Farmers
