Instead of supporting our struggling farmers, who were resorting to shooting their starving stock, the Government were using words like “resilience” and “preparedness”. 

Farmers epitomise resilience, and it is condescending of this Government to have repeated this message to our farmers who were spending every waking hour, each and every day to keep their animals alive in what is the worst drought in decades.

Preparedness is a great approach before a drought hits, but when farmers are deep into the worst drought of the century and have exhausted 18 months of finite preparation measures, then it has no place in the dialogue amidst the devastating of drought.

Only when the Barilaro Berejiklian Government realised they were losing votes, and potentially their regional seats, in the upcoming 2019 election did they finally, and reluctantly, respond and act to my long-running campaign to have freight subsidies for transport of fodder, water and stock introduced. 

The Government’s backflip occurred when only days before their Emergency Drought Relief announcement that they would not be introducing freight subsidies since they would “distort the market”. They were hell-bent on sticking to their loans, which was unconscionable of them to put financially stressed farmers into more debt.

While I welcome the Government’s change of heart, however late and irrespective of their true motivation, I have concerns about aspects of the package which I intend to address.

The $20,000 cap per farm business for freight subsidies for the 18 month period, retrospectively commencing January 1, 2018 and concluding June 30, 2019, will likely be exhausted by some farmers almost immediately, and for most farmers it simply won’t last that long.

I also had concerns regarding the 1,500 kilometre distance limit for eligibility for freight subsidies; farmers are already sourcing fodder from South Australia as fodder supplies become scarce, and farmers are now looking towards Western Australia for fodder, which is a distance beyond the limit which farmers could qualify for subsidies.

During last week’s sitting, I twice addressed the Legislative Assembly of NSW Parliament and called on the National Liberal Government to immediately review and amend the caps and limits they’ve stipulated in the drought assistance package.

I have also raised the issue directly with the office of Niall Blair, Minister for Primary Industries.

While the Government’s announcement is welcome, one only needs to look at their record of inaction as evidence that the only way we seem to be able to get anything done in regional NSW is by having a non-National member representing the Orange electorate – otherwise all we will have is a puppet who does not stand up to their peers for the best interests of our electorate.

History has shown that the National Party take the electorate for granted and have failed to represent the individuals who comprise it.   

By not having to “toe the party line” I can represent farmers and our community in a way which can make the Government respond … in their own good time, of course.