THE National Farmers Federation are concerned that the drought reform measures being tested in WA this year, are being complicated by the State having one of its worst seasons on record.
The $21 million drought pilot reform program is being conducted by the WA and Federal Governments and has had strong uptake with about 400 farmers participating in Farm Planning Workshops throughout the Wheatbelt.
The pilot started on July 1 and will run until June 30 next year although some payments under the program will continue until 2014.
The NFF also wants to ensure the pilot’s upcoming review is robust enough to ensure that meaningful information is generated on the effectiveness of improved drought and risk management measures “particularly in light of the poor season”.
NFF CEO Ben Fargher said while there was concern about the complications of testing the reforms in a tough drought year, the timing had also created a positive effect because Centrelink support serves were “on the ground ready to go” for many WA farmers suffering through the worst drought and poorest grain return in 20 years, with a little over 5 million tonnes expected to be delivered to bulk grain handler CBH.
Mr Fargher said NFF wanted to ensure genuine and rigorous evaluation of the drought pilot program.
He said rolling out a new program nationally could present huge implications for east coast producers because the existing Exceptional Circumstances funding and support program rules were currently in place.
“They have to get it right and that means understanding clearly what did and didn’t work with the pilot in WA,” he said.
Mr Fargher said the timing of the EC transition was also extremely critical for east coast farmers.
He said assessment of the WA trial needed to be done quickly because the government would be making decisions next year.
But he also warned “not too quickly so that it’s rushed and the whole thing falls over”.
“We are just concerned and need to talk to the government and we want advice from WAFarmers about it and the State Government,” he said.
Mr Fargher said it was unsafe to assume the drought pilot could be safely translated to farming scenarios on the east coast of Australia, just because they may or may not work in WA.
He said east coast farmers operated according to different scales, different systems and used different consultants.
“Just because something doesn’t work in the west doesn’t mean it won’t work in the east and vice versa,” he said.
“We are just signalling a warning out to the government to get this right and while we are having all these debates about the Murray Darling Basin Plan and a price on carbon, we don’t want to take our eye off this issue otherwise it will come around again and we will get caught short and that will be a real problem.”
Mr Fargher said NFF would continue discussions about the drought pilot program with Federal Agriculture Joe Ludwig and his staff.
“We are putting drought reform on their agenda and he is very happy to talk about it and our judgement is he wants to get it right too,” he said.
“They have talked about fast tracking a review but that could mean two things.
“Fast track it so we can put some real resources into an evaluation which would be good.
“But rushing a review is not a good outcome; we just need to make sure it’s the former.
“We are very focussed on this drought pilot because we have been pushing for a review of drought policy and so the pilot was set up.
“We always knew there would be good and bad parts about it.
“But we wanted to test it and we were of the genuine belief that Tony Burke, the Federal Agriculture Minister at the time, and Terry Redman, the WA Agriculture Minister, were genuine about looking at what’s good and what doesn’t work.
“We’ve had a long conversation with Joe Ludwig and we believe he is genuine about that too.
“We just want to make sure we test what’s good and what’s bad.”
Mr Ludwig is expected to be in WA next week for the International Grains Council conference in Perth, where he will meet with his State counterpart, Mr Redman, to discuss the drought pilot program’s review.
Mr Ludwig said farming families and communities in Australia needed a better system, which is why he will be fast-tracking a review of the pilot to help inform Government consideration of national drought policy reform.
“I think it is widely accepted that the current system of exceptional circumstances does not represent best practise when it comes to helping farmers manage these risks,” he said.
“The Australian and WA Governments are currently trialling a range of measures to support West Australian farmers better manage the risks of a drought occurring and improve farm planning.
“The areas taking part in the pilot were selected, in consultation with the Primary Industries Ministerial Council, because they were not impacted by the longstanding drought experienced in the eastern states of Australia.
“However farmers in WA are currently experiencing their driest season in years with particularly low rainfall over the Wheatbelt and southwest.
“This has stimulated interest in the assistance made available through the pilot.
“Supporting our farmers through difficult times is a priority for the Government – which why we are maintaining the current EC system throughout this period.
“However we need to ensure we have systems in place to help farm businesses move from crisis management to risk management.”
Mr Ludwig said the pilot measures aimed to help farm businesses prepare for future challenges and provide more effective social support services for farming families.
“When I visited WA last month, I met farming families in Mukinbudin, Lake Grace and Wagin taking part in the trial,” he said.
“There is no doubt these farmers are extremely concerned about their future and it’s great that they can be part of the trial during this period of low rainfall.”
Shadow Agriculture Minister John Cobb said he supported the pilot program but suggested it was not a drought program.
Mr Cobb said it was a farm management assistance program on a smaller scale than the previous programs offered to farmers under Howard Government, including Natural Resource Management programs.
“It has some has some good elements and does recognise the need to assist the farm sector that has doubled farm debt of $30 billion in 2001 to now well over $60 billion,” he said.
“However it is concerning that Labor plan to use it to justify the removal of other vital agricultural programs such as EC drought assistance.
“The drought in WA highlights the need to keep the EC program which the Gillard Government is threatening to slash.
“The system isn’t perfect but Labor’s reform agenda is about saving money to pay off their debt, not improving the farm sector or drought assistance.
“This is all part of Labor’s plan to amalgamate, downsize and re badge agricultural programs so they can save money to pay for their other mistakes.”
