{"id":66300,"date":"2014-05-05T23:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=66300"},"modified":"2020-12-04T10:32:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T00:32:13","slug":"mps-listen-to-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/05\/05\/mps-listen-to-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs Listen To Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Burnett councillor and Coolabunia dairy farmer Damien Tessmann with visiting MPs Anne Maddern and Ian Rickuss\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 5, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two Queensland MPs – members of the State Parliament’s Agriculture, Resources and Environment Committee – visited the South Burnett last week to gather views at firsthand about the government’s drought relief package.<\/p>\n

Committee chairman Ian Rickuss (the Member for Lockyer) and committee member Anne Maddern (Member for Maryborough) visited a number of local properties and businesses on Thursday, including Smithfield Feedlot and Coolabunia peanut growers.<\/p>\n

In the evening, they hosted an open forum at the Town Common Hall where rural producers could speak freely and ask questions.<\/p>\n

They heard many complaints from the crowd about delays in accessing Federal funding, the size of the forms (up to 28 pages) and the information requested.<\/p>\n

“People won’t fill the forms in. They look at it and then just throw their hands in the air.”
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“The government knows exactly what I earn and exactly what I grow; why do I have to tell it again all the time?”
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While sympathetic, Mr Rickuss and Ms Maddern urged the group to contact their Federal Members about this as it was outside their control.<\/p>\n

Other topics covered included:<\/strong><\/p>\n