Drought aid boost

PM announces $190m relief package for struggling farmers

FARMERS will get up to $12,000 in cash payments to help them and their communities fight one of the worst droughts of the past century.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday returned to a farm at Trangie in central NSW to announce the $190 million relief package, which includes a boost for mental health services.

He described some farm- ers’ situations as diabolical and tragic, as they battle dry conditions across large swathes of eastern and southern Australia.

“You put the food on our tables, the fibre that goes on our backs and we have your back,” he said yesterday.

It comes after the government in June extended the Farm Household Allowance scheme from three to four years. The government is also changing the assets test to allow an estimated 8000 more farmers to access support to recognise the severity of the drought. But how much difference the package will make is unclear.

Dairy farmer Ashley Gamble, from near Toowoomba in Queensland, is frightened about the future.

He said $12,000 might put food on the table for his children, but would go nowhere on the farm because it was less than the cost of a load of grain or hay. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone,” Mr Gamble told the Nine Network yesterday.

“It’s like you are in jail every day. You turn up here because you’ve got to turn up.

“It’s just depressing.” Mr Turnbull defended the figure, promising to monitor the situation. Eligible farmers will receive the first payment on September 1, with another round of funding to flow on March 1 next year.

The FHA allows farmers to access a payment equivalent to the unemployment benefit, worth about $16,000 a year.

The extra relief payment will allow couples to get up to $12,000, while singles will be able to access up to $7200.