Thursday, 31 October 2024

Drought assistance

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (09:55): I raise a matter for the Minister for Agriculture, and I ask: when will the on-farm drought infrastructure grants be extended to other areas of the state impacted by extremely low rainfall conditions, particularly the postcodes of 3312, 3317, 3318 and 3319 in the West Wimmera Shire Council? I have been contacted by councillor Tim Meyer, who is amazed to see that while the on-farm drought infrastructure grants were originally announced for the entire West Wimmera Shire Council, when they were published they were restricted to a limited number of postcodes. It is a postcode lottery for people in that area. He asks:

How can the northern portion of our Shire not receive the same consideration when facing equally low levels of rainfall is absolutely impossible to understand. In the Kaniva district, the amount of rain received during the growing season so far is 190mm, putting it in the lowest 10% of seasons ever recorded – when the long-term average is almost double of 327mm.

I therefore ask the minister to review the criteria for eligibility for that grant.