Drought happens. Has happened before. Will happen again. It is devastating. It can be costly. It can make you feel despair.
It is time for Australia to move on from the emotive, gut wrench that is the drought story, with people reliant on agriculture being forced to beg for survival, rely on handouts, exit the industry or slowly (or quickly) go broke.
Does Australia want the option in the future to continue to purchase Australian food and fibre? If so, then Australia needs to create a better system for the ag industry with support measures in place for when the next drought inevitably rears its ugly head. Support for producers as well as rural communities.
Let's make a shire's drought declaration automatically trigger a state and federally funded economic stimulus package for that area. Provide the necessary funding to implement a project that has been through a rigorous planning process to ensure it suits the needs of the community, offers employment and the opportunity for economic benefit. Maybe it's growing tourism, building roads, a new hall, moving a government office to a rural area or completing a research project.
Let's look at boosting secondary and tertiary industries in rural communities that will give our rural communities a future. Don’t ask drought affected local governments to chip in as they rely on the drought affected for their income too.
Let's make low or no cost training available for the drought affected – both graziers and other drought affected businesses and individuals. It has been so successful in the past. Courses could include business development, entrepreneurship and those secondary and tertiary industries identified. Offer graziers the opportunity to get better at decision making around when to sell or move off their livestock in dry times. Offer entry via education into a new locally based industry so that drought affected people can stay in their communities, feed their families and have pride in themselves while they wait.
I don’t like seeing images of dying stock on my television screen any more than the next person – I’ve seen it in real life and it is abhorrent to me but that is how we are portrayed to urban political decision making centres. It is time, to remind everyone that there is more to the story than the heartache and pain. Let’s use those images not just for sympathy or donations of bales of hay. Let’s use them to stimulate more mature conversations around what Australia can do to really help us out here - help us learn how to better manage our land and livestock to survive the crippling but predictable effects of drought. Help us to look to a brighter, more robust and diversified rural economy for not just those directly in agricultural production but also the individuals, families and communities that are needed to support them.
Based in Longreach, Alison Mobbs is the president of the Queensland Rural, Regional and Remote Women’s Network.
