Where is the response from our state leaders to a community in suffering?
It took the Premier a matter of days to announce support measures to those affected by the virus outbreak at SA’s tomato growers. However, at the same time, despite multiple calls for acknowledgement, support and assistance from local leaders, there has been very little response from the state government to farmers suffering from the effects of drought, frost and industry woes. Although we are being told that, as a group, we are “resilient”.
Instead of a buzzword response, what is needed is acknowledgement of the severity of the issues facing a large swath of South Australian primary industries this year. It shouldn’t be the case that 3 businesses with hundreds of employees are immediately supported but thousands of businesses with 1 or a handful are not.
Telling a farmer that they are “resilient” doesn’t do anything to help them, in fact it’s condescending and places an added burden on them to live up to that standard, potentially adding to mental stress. Acknowledging their pain; working on practical solutions, however small; visiting those affected and gaining an understanding of the challenges they are facing; these are steps that our state government should be taking. Practical steps that would go a long way to addressing some of the health and wellbeing challenges, including mental health battles, that primary producers are facing this year.
The dictionary definition of a drought is “a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall,” the last 12 months has certainly met that metric, with some areas of the state on track to receive their lowest rainfall on record. Despite continued forecasts of a wetter than average spring from the BOM, forecasts that farmers have relied on in trying to make informed decisions, regional SA has found itself decidedly in a drought.
The Minister may be right that formal declarations of drought haven’t occurred for a decade (Stock Journal 28th of September, 2024), but acknowledging that one is occurring, and responding to it, shouldn’t be this difficult. It is still incumbent on the state and federal government to fund and resource drought response and recovery programs under the current National Drought Agreement. A key deliverable outcome of the agreement is that “farming businesses, farming families and farming communities are supported in times of hardship and have an increased understanding of, and access to, available support.”
Failing to recognise that we are in a drought is blocking farming families and the communities that rely on them from experiencing the positive outcomes available to them under the National Drought Agreement - “support to mitigate the effects of drought on the health and wellbeing of farming families and farming communities.”
This will now be a long road out. Even if a normal rainfall pattern were to start shortly the aftershocks of this season will be felt for some time into the future. The damage has been done.
In the next 12 months it will not just be farming families that have to recover; the allied and supporting industries that supply primary producers will be feeling the pinch as farmers close the chequebooks.
It’s time for the Premier to step up, to get out into the regions, to see the damage first hand and to respond to the need.
Comments