
Australian Government releases new drought plan
[as published in the Stock Journal]
The Commonwealth Government leads, and therefore sets the tone, for collective government drought policy response. A new Drought Plan for 2024 to 2029 was released in December and a new investment strategy for the Future Drought Fund (FDF) was released last week.
Conversations about drought policy and its resultant programs must be recurring. The best time to make material changes to drought policy is when you are not in the grips of drought as it allows a more objective process. Equally the best time to critically test the effectiveness of the program responses is when you are in a drought event.
It is difficult to objectively assess whether the Commonwealth Government’s programs are delivering for South Australian livestock producers as meaningful publicly available data is hard to find. Two long standing and well-known support measures do have accessible reporting data – the Farm Household Allowance (FHA) and Farm Management Deposits (FMDs).
Over the last 10 years, SA farming businesses have accounted for 12% of the total number of farming businesses across Australia to have accessed FHA. However, they currently account for 23% of the total number receiving FHA, and reflective of one of the worst seasons or record, in the last 6 months they accounted for 27% of the total number of businesses granted FHA.
Over the last 4 years, the number of FMD accounts held nationally reduced by 7% while their total value increased by 13% to $6.01 billion. Across SA, accounts held reduced by 12% while their total value increased by 7% to $947 million.
SA livestock businesses commonly make up nearly half the accounts and their value for SA. Over this same period, accounts held dropped by 16% while their total value increased by just 2%, demonstrating a higher draw down rate.
While the numbers across these two programs tell us they are having an impact, it is not possible to determine if this is at the level it needs to be.
The FDF is now the Commonwealth Government’s roadmap for building drought resilient farms, landscapes and communities. Set up in 2019, it has taken a while to operationalise this policy investment vehicle. But with $100 million to be made available every year for grants and programs, its performance will be a key measure for critically assessing government drought policy investment in the years ahead.
The second phase of the FDF focuses on fewer, high-impact programs guided by community input and the 2023 Productivity Commission review. Learnings from the first 4 years investment (2020–2024) highlighted opportunities to enhance outcomes.
Drought policy is complex. It has improved over time, but it still lacks some of the joined-up structure that is required to have the greatest impact and provide the best support to producers and communities. While only one part of this policy landscape, digestible and relatable public data will be critical for assessing FDF performance and ensuring we have fit-for-purpose policy levers in place.
By Travis Tobin