A NEW drought action group has formed in the Central West as farmers consider making a direct plea to the federal Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke, to cut red tape and allow immediate Exceptional Circumstances (EC) help for the Mudgee, Mendooran and Binnaway areas.
A meeting at Mendooran last week heard claims that the National Rural Advisory Council (NRAC), which makes
EC recommendations to Mr Burke, was now too busy looking at which areas should have assistance withdrawn to consider rethinking help for districts being crippled by recurring drought.
So much review work was piled up that NRAC could be busy until April assessing whether areas which now have EC should lose their assistance.
NSW Farmers Rylstone branch chairman, David Clarke, said even if an assessment was started soon, various State and federal level check-offs for a new EC application would take some time and the situation was already “too urgent” to ignore.
The central district’s EC support was taken away in March.
Robert Hudspeth, “Kareela”, Merrygoen, said the situation was simply “a disaster – it’s not drought, we’re past that”.
Ron Rayner, “Glanna”, Gulgong, said it was becoming extremely difficult to keep up with water shortage problems, and total hand-feeding.
NSW Farmers is now exploring asking Mr Burke to either declare EC status for the region, or release an interim welfare payment.
Mr Clarke said the Mendooran, Dunedoo and Coolah districts should meet the EC rainfall criteria but the wider areas east of Mudgee to Dunedoo would probably have difficulty reaching that criteria, even though there had “certainly been no recovery”.
Rob Lennon, “Gundooee”, Dunedoo, said he understood the NRAC had work planned for the next four months, assessing areas now in EC for possible exclusion.
“What worries us is the delay this will cause in having this area assessed. Directives given to NRAC need to keep pace with the worsening climatic conditions,” he said.
Mr Clarke agreed the delay was unnecessary, saying the urgency of taking people out of EC “is obviously not as high as the priority of those people needing to go in”.
State MP for Barwon, Kevin Humphries, said the NRAC was under pressure to fast-track areas out of EC, and the resources were not available to adequately assess people needing to go in to it.
Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, said he had written to Mr Burke asking that he can send NRAC representatives out to the region as soon as possible.
“Cobby (Federal MP John Cobb) invited the Prime Minister to come out and look at the drought in several areas of NSW, and he hasn’t,” Mr Coulton said.
The Central West Drought Action Group hopes the local Livestock Health and Pest Authority (LHPA) will apply for a start in the EC submission for Mendooran, Dunedoo, Coolah and Binnaway districts this week.
Mr Burke said later any application for EC assistance was referred immediately to NRAC, but it was in the interests of all farmers that NRAC remained above political interference.
However, on radio last week he pointed out that once a State Government applied for an EC rating it could take up to six months to see the process through – and the bigger the area the more time consuming this would be.
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