The drought assistance message was loud and clear from the central west at Tambo last Thursday – costs related to de-silting dams need to be eligible for claims for assistance under the Drought Relief Assistance Scheme.
Around 50 people from Barcaldine, Blackall and Tambo attended the roundtable convened with the Queensland Parliament Agriculture and Environment Committee at Tambo’s community hall, which is drawing its enquiry into the design and delivery of the scheme to a close.
They were told by grazier Hume Turnbull that it wouldn’t cost the government much extra to allow claims against dam de-silting to better prepare for future droughts.
“The thing is, it’s only something you can do in a drought,” he said.
His words followed those of the two MPs present whose electorates cover much of the drought-affected parts of the state.
Warrego’s Anne Leahy, who was standing in for the LNP’s Ted Sorensen on the day, said the absence of such a measure was especially galling for her constituents close to the New South Wales border, where it’s included in that state’s scheme.
“It’s a clear inconsistency,” she said.
Member for Gregory Lachlan Millar described the opportunity to clean out dams as “the only small silver lining” landholders have when droughts are bad.
“Helping them to clean them out is an opportunity for them to hold more water to insure against future droughts, and it gives employment,” he said.
Businesses that use a long-term agistment or backgrounding model, such as Geoff Swanson’s, were highlighted as being penalised by being ineligible for assistance.
Mr Swanson said it was just a different management decision.
Both politicians spoke of the need for assistance for small businesses in affected towns, in the wake of a surge of closures and departures brought on by turnover downturns as high as 80 per cent and job losses.
“We’re seeing bankruptcies across the spectrum and it means people are leaving and our towns are getting smaller,” Mr Millar said. “I’ve recommended a moratorium on fixed government charges – electricity and rates and so on.”
Ms Leahy added that a 1996 Small Business Scheme had helped people in towns and could be considered again.
She was backed up by Queensland Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association vice president Louise Martin, who told the meeting a revised DRAS scheme should include an education package to stem the bleeding for families struggling to keep their children in education.
“We have eight drought-declared shires with schools with no Year 7-12 top and another three that only go from Prep to Year 10.
“Currently there’s nothing to assist our wage earners in these towns that are also reliant on primary production. This isn’t the complete answer but it would help.”
The Agriculture and Environment Committee also visited Cunnamulla and Roma to give residents the opportunity to help shape the future of the drought assistance scheme.
Its chair, the Member for Ipswich, Jennifer Howard said the whole visit had been really enlightening.
“You can have as many briefings as you like but looking in people’s eyes really resonates,” she said.
While tight-lipped on what possible recommendations, due to be handed down in February 2016, might look like, Ms Howard said the overall feeling of people she had spoken with was positive feedback for the Drought Relief Assistance Scheme.
The six-member committee consists of three government members, two LNP members and Katter’s Australian Party’s Rob Katter.
Mr Katter would have been pleased to hear the feedback from Tambo grazier Andrew Martin, who told the roundtable that droughts were approached properly when Queensland had a reconstruction bank.
“It actually reconstructed people,” he said. “You’ve got QRAA – you’ve got the infrastructure and the money there.
“It gets rid of the arguments of whether you allow dam de-silting and so on.”
