Outcomes from Drought round table discussions - But no Rivers of gold coming
- By: "Farm Tender" News
- Event News
- Jul 09, 2018
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* Agreement to use NFF drought policy as a framework to move forward from
* Agricultural business cycle and work by Senator Barry O’Sullivan will also be used as valuable inputs
* Banks agree to further discussions on Farm Management Deposit offsets
Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud has had constructive discussions with farm groups and banks around drought policy today.
The key themes of the day were around drought preparedness and resilience, with good discussion about how to best help farmers to ride out the cyclical nature of the farming business.
“We’ve agreed to use the NFF’s drought policy as a model going forward, with reference to Senator Barry O’Sullivan’s important work on drought policy,” Minister Littleproud said.
“We’ll also refer to work on the Agricultural Business Model, which recognises the cycles of farming and the phases of drought.
“There are no rivers of gold coming – we’ve already invested $1.3 billion in this term of government and we won’t be returning to interest rate subsidies – but I think it’s always important to listen and hear feedback on what can be done better. I think today was a good example of this.
“The banks have agreed to further discussions around Farm Management Deposits and how the model could be improved, which I’m really pleased about.
“In the arena of the state governments, we also heard serious concerns around stamp duty being charged on multi-peril crop insurance, which adds up to 10 per cent to the cost of the insurance. There was also general agreement about the importance of financial literacy and support for it to be made more consistent.”
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