A ‘cash injection’ of up to $3500 for drought-affected farmers announced in Giffard last Friday by Agriculture Minister, Jaclyn Symes, has been met with mixed feelings by local farmers.

Compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars farmers have spent on feeding stock over the past two years or rates due this month, the amount pales in comparison.

The minister made her announcement at Giffard and then flew to Marlo for an informal discussion on the drought with a handful of locals, which included East Gippsland Shire Council mayor, Natalie O’Connell.

Minister Symes told the Advertiser the grant figures were based on 30 per cent of the average East Gippsland and Central Gippsland rate notices.

“It’s related without being restricted, we think most people will use the money on rates but it’s not appropriate we dictate what the money is spent on, farmers know their businesses better than anyone,” Ms Symes said.

Packaged as drought hardship support payments, young farmers under 35 can access $3500 and others $2500.

Minister, Jaclyn Symes, said the overall feedback at the meeting near Orbost she had received was “positive”.

The government has also issued $5 million to extend the on-farm drought infrastructure grants program where farmers can apply for dollar-for-dollar grants up to $5000 to help with this drought and prepare for future droughts.

Cr O’Connell raised the issues of rate relief and fodder subsidies to no avail with the example of rorting of the transport subsidy in New South Wales used as an argument against that measure.

“Rate relief is what our primary producers are saying will provide the most benefit,” Ms O’Connell said.

Cr O’Connell said council would follow up with written correspondence regarding the issue.

Ms Symes confirmed there would be no waiving of the farmer’s input in the dollar-for-dollar infrastructure grants.

Gippsland East MP, Tim Bull, described the package as “disappointingly light”.

“To fully subsidise farm rates in East Gippsland Shire would cost $4.9 million,” Mr Bull said.

“In the Wellington Shire it would be $10.1 million, this would have been a better spend. It’s what farming families wanted, they made this very clear.

“One farmer who is eligible for $2500 under the Minister’s announcement said ‘I will throw that on the ground in the next two days’.

“He said he was feeding pellets every second day to his sheep at a cost of $1500 per day and silage the alternate day at a cost of $900 per day.

“That shows you how insignificant this package is, farmers I have contacted this morning just keep telling me it is well short of making any real difference.

“Another who pays $40,000 in rates, said $2500 was not the support he was expecting.

“The Minister built up expectations of full rate relief this week by saying it was ‘on the table’ in local media during the week.

“To have the Minister say she will come back in a few months if it hasn’t rained is not good enough, the time for real action was months ago, and at the latest, on her visit today (Friday).

“Waiting months again is a sign she does not understand the problem or the urgency.”

Leader of The Nationals, Peter Walsh, said “the package is a long way short of what farmers have been calling for and what they were expecting”.

“This is a $13 million band-aid and it’s grossly inadequate in the context of the catastrophic conditions that have been slowly crushing our farmers for months now,” Mr Walsh said.

The State Government funding announcement comes as Federal Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, said drought conditions have “worsened considerably over the past two weeks”.

“Farmers are watching their prized asset their topsoil blowing away before their eyes. There is a sense of helplessness and frustration as well as they recognise the very severe economic consequences for their own financial situation and the environmental consequences for their properties,” Mr Chester said.

“The drought is also having a huge social impact on communities across Gippsland in areas like Giffard, Stradbroke and McGaurans Beach; further east around Briagolong, Bengworden and Meerlieu to Orbost, and into the high country in places like Ensay, Swifts Creek and Dargo.”

Mr Chester said farmers, some of whom were enduring some of the driest conditions for a century, believed Gippsland’s drought was the forgotten drought.

“I’ve got to say to the people of Gippsland: we haven’t forgotten you in this place, and I certainly haven’t forgotten you,” Mr Chester said.

“We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to support our farmers as much as possible to ensure they’re viable in the longer term.

“Drought is the most exhausting and insidious of natural disasters. It erodes at the hope of the farming community. Every sunny day, every windy day, every dry day, it’s corrosive throughout the community as it takes away from people’s confidence in the future.”

Mr Chester also said he was concerned the people most in need of assistance were not getting it.

“The bureaucracy and red tape we put in the road of people when they’re already in difficult circumstances undermines the value of the funding that’s already been announced,” Mr Chester said.

“When people are at their most vulnerable, when they’re struggling with the economic and social challenges that go with drought, they’re not in the best place to be filling out piles of paperwork.”

PICTURED: State Minister for Agriculture, Jaclyn Symes (centre), travelled to Giffard and further east to Orbost last Friday to announce up to $3500 for drought-affected farmers in the region, however the announcement has been met with criticism. Ms Symes is pictured with East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority chief executive officer, Graeme Dear, East Gippsland Shire Council mayor, Cr Natalie O’Connell, and Orbost farmers, Peter and Jeannette Honey.