{"id":250896,"date":"2020-01-16T15:40:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T05:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=250896"},"modified":"2020-01-16T15:40:18","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T05:40:18","slug":"agforce-slams-drought-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/01\/16\/agforce-slams-drought-response\/","title":{"rendered":"AgForce Slams Drought Response"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Two-thirds of Queensland is officially in drought<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

January 16, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

AgForce claims the State Government has failed to appreciate the seriousness of the drought, and is unwilling accept advice from people on the ground.<\/p>\n

The rural lobby group says many rural communities in Queensland have been left on the brink of ruin.<\/p>\n

It has repeated its calls for a waiver on land rent and subsidies for councils to provide rate relief.<\/p>\n

Chair of AgForce\u2019s Drought Working Group, Mark Collins, slammed the\u00a0 State Government for its “slow, inflexible, inadequate and off-handed response” to the drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how bad people out here are hurting, they just won\u2019t listen,\u201d Mr Collins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimary producers are at their wits\u2019 end \u2013 water and feed are being trucked in at great expense, herds are being laboriously hand fed, calves are being weaned early or put down, farm businesses are going under \u2013 but it appears that the Government is asleep at the wheel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when farm businesses die \u2013 when our cash flow dries up \u2013 so do the rural communities that depend on the dollars that farmers spend in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government can\u2019t seem to understand the scale of the unfolding disaster and have no idea how to respond. They are just spinning their wheels in the bulldust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are so hopelessly out of ideas that the Premier went on to Alan Jones\u2019 Sky News program in October to ask for new ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn response to her request, AgForce provided a list of solutions that would make a real difference to droughted producers and the communities which rely on their business to prevent them slowly dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, we recommended a waiver on land rent and vehicle registration costs, financial support to allow councils to provide rate relief, and additional funding for pest and weed control.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these would be relatively quick and simple to implement, are within the government\u2019s authority, and would provide immediate relief for financially stressed farm businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite this, and the fact that the Premier said publicly she would meet with farmers to discuss ideas, it took us over a month just to secure a briefing with her, and a further month to get a reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe letter when it finally came \u2013 only after we told them industry could wait no more \u2013 was an insult to farmers and to regional Queensland.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AgForce claims the State Government has failed to appreciate the seriousness of the drought, and is unwilling accept advice from people on the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":250069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,36],"tags":[1134],"yoast_head":"\nAgForce Slams Drought Response - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AgForce claims the State Government has failed to appreciate the seriousness of the drought, and is unwilling accept advice from people on the ground.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/01\/16\/agforce-slams-drought-response\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AgForce Slams Drought Response - 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