Further drought assistance package

Tasmanian Government Media Release - 11 March 2009

The impacts of the persisting drought in parts of Tasmania are being tackled with an additional suite of measures to assist affected communities.  The Tasmanian Drought Taskforce has provided advice to Government on extending existing support and the introduction of new assistance measures.  The measures announced today focus primarily on helping with the community impact of the drought, and extend assistance through to the end of June.  Business-related support and continuation of the community and social support packages will be developed.

Drought Package summary

Small grants program - CWA:
The Country Women's Association will receive an additional $100,000 to continue its distribution of small grants to households in need. The grants can be used to pay family bills such as power, clothing, school and similar expenses and will be a welcome supplement to Centrelink benefits. Already, $115,000 has been provided to the CWA for these grants since May 2008.  For more information see http://www.cwaintas.org.au/main.htm

Community events and forums - TFGA:
The Drought Task Force highlighted the benefit of community-based events, especially those which linked people with service-providers offering support. A number of successful events were held on Flinders Island and in the Midlands over the past year. The Drought Network will work to identify opportunities and areas for the events, and the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association will receive $100,000 to organise and run them. For more information see http://www.tfga.com.au/

Rural Financial Counselling (RFC) and Rural Alive and Well (RAW):
Considerable suffering results from the prolonged impact of the drought on household finances and personal well-being. RAW will receive a further $50,000 in addition to the $165,000 already provided, enabling it to extend is mental health work to the East coast. RFC will be supported with a further $45,000 in recognition that the need for its services is continuing. This is in addition to the $115,000 already provided.  For more information on RAW see http://www.southernmidlands.tas.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=283 
For more information on RFC see http://www.daff.gov.au/agriculture-food/drought/rfcs

Flinders Island Water Monitoring:
Flinders Island farmers are heavily dependent on groundwater resources for essential farming needs. There are concerns that these resources have been drawn down because of the drought. DPIW and the Flinders Council will work together on a groundwater assessment of the island. $80,000 has been allocated for this purpose.

Flinders Freight Equalisation Scheme:
The Commonwealth's Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme largely offsets the costs of transport to and from Flinders Island. However, real differences exist between the cost of primary production on Flinders Island and equivalent production costs on mainland Tasmania. $100,000 will be offered during the first half of calendar year 2009 to assist with the cost of transporting feed to the island, so that this cost is no more than for a similar road distance within mainland Tasmania.

The measures announced today are all aimed at community or regional assistance for drought-afflicted areas.  However, individual businesses will stand to benefit from three new measures which are being refined as part of the budget development process.
Producers will have access to loan funds to invest in infrastructure associated with irrigation through reactivation of the provisions of the Farm Water Development Act 1985.  In addition, dollar for dollar funding will be provided through an extension of the Enterprise Growth Program to allow eligible farmers to develop drought recovery programs.  Further support will be offered through loan funds by extending the Tasmanian Industry Support Scheme to allow eligible farmers access to capital for restocking or re-pasturing if they have been denied funds from mainstream financial institutions.  These three individual business assistance measures will be administered through the Department of Economic Development and Tourism. For more information see http://www.development.tas.gov.au/business/list_of_small_business_programs_and_services/tasmanian_industry_support_scheme.