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| ABC Rural News |
Irrigator anger at Qld counterparts
South Australian irrigators have reacted angrily to the news that Queensland irrigators have extracted record amounts of water from the Murray-Darling.
The state's irrigators have had as little as six per cent of their water allocations, while those in Queensland have taken more than a million megalitres.
Queensland Water Minister Craig Wallace says irrigators have followed the rules.
"When we had rainfall events earlier this year irrigators conformed to the rules," he said.
"They were able to take water from that system and take water for crop usage."
Greens leader Bob Brown says the situation in Queensland demonstrates there is available water upstream in the system.
He says he will push for a senate committee to investigate when federal parliament resumes next week.
"I believe the water's there. The Government's indicated they don't think it is, well, let's have that tested," he said.
National approach
Federal Water Minister Penny Wong says Australians want action rather than another inquiry.
She says a national water plan is needed.
"This emphasises yet again why it is so important that we move to managing the Murray-Darling Basin as a whole basin," she said.
Former irrigator Neil Schillabeer agrees action is the key.
"If words were water we would have had plenty of floods by now, so we certainly need our Federal Government to stand up and make some hard decisions," he said.
Local dairy farmer Clem Mason is remaining optimistic.
"Lose hope? Never," he said.
"We envisage that people will wake up, that there is a system, a Murray-Darling system that's worth saving."
The Greens want any water audit completed by the end of next month to allow the Government to secure available water before it is too late.
Premier Mike Rann says a national management system will see an end to upstream irrigators pulling vast quantities of water from the Murray-Darling.
"The accelerated buy-back is important, the water audit is important but ultimately the reason that we've got this independent commission to set the cap on the whole system is because of what we've seen happening," he said.
"I mean basically what has happened over a hundred years is that the river has been run as four separate bits rather than one river."
Cattle industry optimism at Kidman Springs
With the live cattle trade to Indonesia booming, there was a mood of optimism when more than 100 cattlemen, land managers and researchers from across north Australian recently gathered for the annual field day at Kidman Springs, 220 kilometres south-west of Katherine.
However, sky rocketing fuel prices and operating costs are forcing pastoralists to look for savings by managing cattle herds and the environment with smaller paddocks, feed supplements, feral animal control and the introduction of tropically adapted cattle breeds such as senapol and tuli.
The Territory Government's 'beefing up' field day focused on how to increase production from the estimated two million cattle grazing across Territory range lands.
The Primary Industries Department says its pastoral research over the last decade has already helped boost production 20 per cent.
Some north Australian researchers believe the Territory's 250 cattle stations could sustainably graze an extra one million cattle within 10 years, overtaking Western Australia and Victoria's beef herds.
Private consultant Dr Steve Petty says more fencing, watering points, sub-division and a better understanding of landscape and climate variation is needed to ensure the increase in cattle numbers is sustainable.
Dr Petty says his research across the rangelands suggests the Territory's pastoral stations could turn off an additional 200,000 cattle to south-east Asia each year.
"I believe the pastoral industry in this area has huge opportunity for development and expansion. And I think there's a lot of opportunity for producers to increase and improve their business and start diluting some of the costs that are rolling in."
He says thousands of square kilometres on cattle stations are relatively ungrazed and lose valuable pastures to savanna burning.
"The properties I have worked with would suggest that potentially 50 per cent increase is in stock numbers, with additional development is doable. There's opportunity to develop places for capacity for millions of additional cattle."
But there's also growing discontent amongst some pastoralists over what they're calling a concerning backlog of applications to subdivide cattle stations.
Maria Townsend of East Mathieson Station, west of Katherine, hopes to lodge an application with the Pastoral Lands Board to subdivide the station into three blocks.
She says smaller cattle stations can be sustainable and she's concerned over what she fears is a stalled decision making process.
"I believe they are scared because there has been so many subdivision applications been put forward, and they really don't know how to handle it.
"I heard some lame excuse of why they couldn't meet is because they wanted to meet in Darwin and they couldn't get accommodation.
"Why can't they meet in Katherine? I know of two we have still got to submit ours, but I hear that there are quite a few subdivision applications."
Mrs Townsend is calling for changes to the standards for subdivision which she says prevent her subdividing her station.
"According to the Government's standards of carrying capacity, there is no way we can do that, yet we have the potential of bringing three businesses into an area that was for so many years under utilised left fallow and nothing happened to it."
She says the Pastoral Lands Board and Territory Government should relax limits for rural subdivision which are currently based on blanket stocking rates.
"The baseline of carrying capacity has to be 3,500 AEs. They are talking about upping it to 5,000 AEs because of increased fuel prices, supplement prices, steel prices.
"A farmer would not be able to make a living.
"I disagree with that. If you manage the land, look after the land, you can make a living off the land."
The Northern Territory Government says there is no backlog of applications to subdivide cattle stations, with just four applications before the board. It says applications must prove the leases created are commercially viable.
The Kidman Springs Field Day also provided a preview of new research planned by Meat and Livestock Australia, which is looking for ways to desex and dehorn cattle without surgery to overcome animal welfare concerns.
Scientists will soon test indictable vaccines capable of non-surgical castrations, and cattle genetics are being carefully screened to identify genes which will help breed cattle herds without horns.
Animal welfare research and development manager Danielle Marotti says it's important to find alternative ways to desex cattle.
"I think one of the real difficulties with castration is, obviously, it's an invasive procedure and so there are some concerns around those and that's developing.
"So if we were actually able to remove the need for that procedure at all, that would sort of be the ultimate in terms of managing the potential welfare issues and again the potential for production issues in terms of the recovery and the healing of the animals in that period."
There's also a new Territory training initiative to reduce cattle stress during mustering and road transport.
Drought task force seeks better irrigators deal
The Riverland Drought Task Force is sending a review of exit grants and drought support funding it has completed to the Productivity Commission in Canberra today.
The regional drought coordinator, Barb Cowey, says the report focuses on the need to give irrigators a better deal if they wish to get out of the industry.
She says horticultural marketers and packhouses are currently excluded from federal Exceptional Circumstances support and they would like the rules changed.
"Our packers actually don't qualify for any of the support and so we were quite keen to make sure that that message [gets out]," she said.
Sheep producer counts mental cost of wild dogs attacks
A sheep producer says the mental anguish associated with the wild dog menace on the Monaro is a greater problem than the monetary loss.
A further meeting was held this week by the Cooma branch of the New South Wales Farmers Association in a bid to find a cross-border solution to stem the number of dogs coming out of the Namadgi National Park in the adjoining ACT.
There have been reports of up to 40 sheep being either killed or mauled by wild dogs in a single night.
Branch president Craig Mitchell says he feels distressed by the problem.
"It's a huge issue. People keep going on about the financial cost to everyone, but it is that mental cost, the black dog in the night that's the real problem," he said.
"Farmers have a real duty of care for their animals, you've got to play that game by the season and keep them alive and then when you have these dogs coming in at night and ripping the guts out of them, it is the mental anguish of it all."
Beef council holds future summit
The North Australian Beef Research Council (NABRC) is in western Queensland today hoping to identify the issues likely to impact on the north's cattle industry over the next four years.
The council's chairman, John Cox, says he expects the industry will remain strong, despite the ongoing dry.
He says its important the council meets industry stakeholders.
"NABRC does not conduct research in its own right. It brings together the producer, the scientist, the researcher and the funds provider and we act as an alliance between those three groups and provide a forum for the research that is required," he said.
Murray-Darling buyback to curb Qld take: Govt
The Federal Government says its water buyback scheme will help wind back the amount of water Queensland irrigators draw from the parched Murray-Darling Basin.
The Queensland Government has defended an increase in the amount of water that irrigators are taking from the northern end of system, saying it is sustainable.
But irrigators in other states are angry about the record extraction.
Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke has told Sky News the water buyback scheme will improve the situation.
"I can absolutely understand the frustration that so many farmers feel when the water that they know would produce a profitable crop simply isn't available on zero allocations," he said.
"That's the reason why we're looking at the buybacks we're looking at and why so much of it is geared towards the northern end of the system."
WAFF applauds drought aid decision
Western Australia's peak farming lobby has congratulated the Federal Government on its decision to extend drought assistance to further areas of WA.
Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Bourke has extended Exceptional Circumstances assistance for drought declared areas until the end of March next year.
The decision follows a review by the Independent Rural Advisory Council which found drought was continuing to severely affect production in the north-eastern wheatbelt and southern rangelands.
The president of the Western Australian Farmers Federation (WAFF), Mike Norton, says it is good news for pastoralists.
"Even though weather conditions have improved somewhat, the income for these particular rangelands and properties won't turn around until next year," he said.
"So the extension of the program so that these people can gain Exceptional Circumstances for their living allowances ... is tremendous news."
Farm group questions grain freight network viability
The Western Australian Farmers Federation says it has serious doubts about the viability of the state's grain freight network.
Babcock and Brown, which owns the network, has suffered massive financial losses on the stock market this week and is currently in a trading halt.
Federation president Mike Norton says parts of the network are in disrepair and he doubts the company will be able to invest in the infrastructure.
Mr Nortan believes the State Government should intervene and take over the lease for the 3,600 kilometre network.
"We believe that it's high time that the ownership of this important contract was taken out of Babcock and Brown's hands and put back in the hands of the Government or a company that is very sympathetic to the grains industry, or rural WA," he said.
Babcock and Brown will today announce a strategy to restructure its debt laden infrastructure investment holdings.
Tributes flow for vet killed by Hendra virus
Australian vets are mourning the death of a Queensland colleague who has died from Hendra virus.
Veterinarian Dr Ben Cunneen is only the third Australian to die from Hendra virus.
The 33-year-old vet caught the virus from horses at the Redlands Veterinary Clinic on Brisbane's bayside last month.
He was the senior equine vet at the clinic.
Dr Cunneen had been in intensive care for more than a month after becoming the first person to be infected with the virus at the clinic.
He died in a Brisbane hospital yesterday.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has extended her sympathy to Dr Cunneen's family and friends.
Australian Veterinary Association president Dr Mark Lawrie says his colleagues are devastated.
"It's a tragic loss to our profession and he'll be greatly missed by his work colleagues and of course his family and our condolences go out to them," he said.
The clinic's owner, Dr David Lovell, says a vet nurse who was admitted at the same time as Dr Cunneen was released from hospital on Tuesday.
A Queensland Department of Primary Industries (DPI) vet has also spent time in hospital as a precaution.
'Devastating' loss
Dr Lovell says Dr Cunneen's family are trying to cope with their loss.
"Dreadful, you know it's just devastating and just spare a thought for them for the last five weeks," he said.
"They've virtually had to maintain a vigil against overwhelming odds of any chance of success, so it's terrible."
Dr Lovell says his staff are devastated by Dr Cunneen's death.
"He's been like part of the family I guess for a long, long time," he said.
"It's just terrible - they're very, very upset. It's been the thing we've been fearing I guess right from the start."
New case
Meanwhile, another horse has tested positive to Hendra virus in north Queensland.
Two horses on a property south of Proserpine have already died from the virus.
Veterinarian Mark Williams says the animal is not showing any signs of sickness and is unlikely to spread the disease.
"The horse that has tested positive to Hendra virus but is otherwise well," he said.
"[It] is very unlikely to pass the disease on while it is in a healthy state, but if it relapses and gets sick with the Hendra virus again, then it would become infected."
The Hendra virus was first identified at the Brisbane northside suburb of Hendra in Queensland in 1994 when 13 horses died after developing a severe lung infection and a bloody froth came from their mouths and noses.
The horse trainer Vic Rail subsequently developed the symptoms and died.
The last Australian to die from Hendra virus was a Mackay farmer in 1995.
Rudd seizes on Coalition's guest workers split
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the Opposition needs to sort out where it stands on the Government's proposed guest worker scheme.
A split has emerged between the Liberal Party and the Nationals, with Nationals MP Kay Hull backing the plan while Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson opposes it.
Liberal Nationals Senator Ron Boswell is now also supporting the scheme and has called for East Timor to be included along with Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Papua New Guinea.
The Government is introducing a scheme to use around 2,500 workers from the four Pacific nations in the horticultural industry.
Speaking from Niue, where he is attending the Pacific Islands Forum, Mr Rudd says the Government has the backing of farmers for the scheme.
"The National Farmers Federation appears to be supporting the Government's position, yet we have Mr Nelson and [Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs] Andrew Robb rowing in the exact opposition direction," Mr Rudd said.
"I think it's time the Liberal and National Party - the Opposition - sorted out whether they've got any policy on this.
"All I know is, farmers' organisations are saying to us ever since we came to Government, 'how can we help stop fruit rotting on the vine?'.
"This is their practical proposal and we've responded in a modest way with a pilot program over three years."
Dr Nelson has told Fairfax radio that while he understands Nationals MP Kay Hull needs to look after the interests of her electorate, he must take a broader national position on the issue.
"We're concerned to know about health checks, security checks, compliance, how we make sure they're going to go back - all of the issues you would expect that surround what is a significant and arguably the most significant change in immigration policy we've had in a generation in Australia," he said.
Dr Nelson maintains that unemployed Australians should be moved to areas where they could fill job vacancies.
Yesterday Ms Hull defended the plan and invited Dr Nelson to visit her electorate in Southern New South Wales, where she says there is a desperate need for workers.
Liberal Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has not directly criticised Dr Nelson's position, but has told ABC's NewsRadio that there is a need for more workers in some industries.
"Quite obviously in certain areas in regional Australia there is a strong requirement for labour that you can't get from other areas," he said.
"There are certain jobs that you just can't get employees to do and if that leaves fruit rotting or abattoirs not working then that's not a good outcome.
"But I think what Brendan is referring to is the checks and balances that go on people coming into the country.
"We don't want to, for instance, import the crime problem of Port Moresby into Australia - we've got to make sure the checks and balances are correct."
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer says he took a Pacific worker scheme to the then cabinet 18 months ago but there was widespread opposition to the scheme.
"[There was a concern] of this sort of image of bringing in labour which is essentially of course, to be frank about it, non-white labour to do jobs that people in Australia simply didn't want to do," he told NewsRadio.
"They didn't want to have a system in Australia ... where you have a second tier of people who come to our country."
Dr Nelson says the point Mr Downer has raised is a community concern which must be managed.
"There is that fear that Alexander has expressed," Dr Nelson said.
"It is not something that should be exaggerated but it's something that's there to be managed."
Forbes saleyards to beef up security
There are plans to triple the number of closed-circuit television cameras at the Central West Livestock Exchange in Forbes.
A spate of vandalism attacks has caused thousands of dollars damage at the saleyards.
The chairman of the shire's saleyards committee, Alistair Lockhart, says there are already two security cameras at the site.
But he says councillors will today decide whether to install up to four more.
"But it was always our long-term plan to have cameras all around the site. However, we didn't think we'd have to do it as soon as this, but we are looking to put in some cameras immediately to the tune of about $3,700," he said.
Hundreds of mine jobs to go
Hundreds of jobs are going from Broken Hill's major lead and zinc mine.
Operator Perilya says lower metal prices have forced a restructuring.
The company says 435 employees will lose their jobs at its mine in the far west of New South Wales.
But it promises they will get their full entitlements.
Perilya says it will now focus on a lower tonnage profile at its southern operation.
Its north mine and Potosi decline will be placed on care and maintenance.
Perilya executive Paul Arndt says he is aware of the major impact for Broken Hill, but says restructuring will help keep the operation viable for the next two to three years.
"What we would then look at is a situation where we're not hydrating and sterilising significant parts of the mine, we're actually seeking to preserve the asset so we would be able to ramp up at any point in that time if we got a significant change in metal price to a higher level of production," he said.
Happening again
Vice-president of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union at Broken Hill, Greg Braes, says mine changes had been expected but the numbers of jobs to go are still a blow.
"The amount that they are actually cutting, 440, it's a lot, so it's hard. It's a real shock at the moment and my heart goes out to everyone because, you know, we've been through it countless times before in Broken Hill," he said.
"Like I said to the boys six years ago, at the end of Pasminco, I thought it couldn't get any worse.
"Then Perilya comes along and we're, six years later, 400 people are going again."
Mr Braes says the workers have heavy financial commitments.
"A lot of these lads, young fellas, a lot of them come here and work for Perilya that never worked in the industry before - come out from pushing trolleys at Woolworths and they've grown up and they've learnt the mine trade," he said.
"And now for this to happen to them, my heart bleeds for them because a lot of them have gone out and bought new homes, new cars and they've got big mortgages and it's going to be hard for them."
Forum to hear drought's social impacts
Riverina people have a chance to tell the Government about the social impacts of the prolonged drought at a three hour public forum in Griffith today.
The event is at the Catholic Club in Yoogali.
Panel chairman Peter Kenny says he wants to know what is working or not in the way of drought support services to individuals and communities.
Mr Kenny says he is hearing many stories of hardship and depression.
"Part of the process that the Government has started, I don't know that they meant to do this, but they've actually opened up a wound in Australia where people have started to talk about their problems, and so you can't put a lid on that,' he said.
"I think the more people who do this, I think it's part of the healing process."
Nationals' MP Kay Hull will attend today's forum and says she hopes ideas will be taken up.
"It's crucial to have a serious drought forum, but it's crucial that ... the people are listened to. We've had meetings all around the place over wheat and a whole host of issues over the years and over the last few months particularly, and the people's cries and the people's thoughts have not been listened to," she said.
Mr Kenny says he thinks the final report will be seriously considered.
"I have confidence in the Minister to be able to deliver to a certain degree," he said.
"I mean he doesn't run the whole of government, but I know he is pretty passionate about the people behind the scene.
"I guess the whole of government and the people of Australia have to decide whether they want vibrant rural communities or not. If they do want them, then it's important for the support to go out there and to deliver what we've found."
Vic drought aid announcement looms
An announcement about further Victorian Government drought assistance is expected in the coming weeks.
The Federal Government announced on Tuesday that Exceptional Circumstances declarations in northern and central Victoria and south-west New South Wales will be extended.
The declarations are now due to expire in March next year, rather than at the end of next month.
Yesterday, the Victorian Farmers Federation urged the State Government to follow the Commonwealth's lead and extend support like council rate rebates for the same period.
A spokesman for Victoria's Agriculture Minister, Joe Helper, says an announcement on continued support should be made in the next few weeks.
The spokesman says the support package is currently being finalised.
Petition urges market opening time changes
Almost 12,000 people have signed a petition calling for changes to the operating times of the Melbourne Markets to be reversed.
Gippsland wholesalers say changes to the market's opening times mean they spend more time at the market than before.
The Member for Morwell, Russell Northe, tabled the petition in Parliament and says the changes make it hard for goods to be brought back to regional areas before grocers open.
He says a delegation of regional traders is seeking a meeting with Agriculture Minister Joe Helper.
"At this stage the Government hasn't done too much at all, it really put the ball back in the court of the Melbourne Market Authority themselves and ... haven't really supported the cause of the country buyers in this instance, and this is very disappointing," he said.
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