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Farm drought assistance simplified
28 Jul 2004
The Federal Government agreed to support a less complex drought-aid process for farmers following a meeting of state agriculture ministers yesterday. Federal Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said communities affected by drought would benefit from a "more responsive" approach to exceptional circumstances assistance. Farmers will get help before suffering severe income loss under a new process that will include assessing a drought's impact on farm production.
Mr Truss said this would reduce the requirement for farmers to provide authorities with income details as part of the EC assessment process. EC applications would mostly be assessed using data that's already agreed on and more readily available.
The National Farmers' Federation said the new process would deliver relief in a more timely manner. Queensland's minister, Henry Palaszczuk, said there's been a lot of confusion about the EC process. The changes won't help farmers still affected by the current drought but should be effective for the future, he said.
Australian Financial Review, 28/7/04.
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