Federal Government drought assistance will be extended to the North-East Wheatbelt of Western Australia, as well as another 43 regions, costing $560 million, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile says.
Federal Government drought assistance will be extended to the North-East Wheatbelt of Western Australia, as well as another 43 regions, costing $560 million, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile says.
The region includes farms in Perenjori, Morawa, Mullewa, Chapman Valley and the eastern part of Northampton.
Mr Vaile said cabinet's decision to expand the exceptional circumstances funding would mean that more than half of Australia's farm land was eligible for the financial help.
"This will take the area of Australia's agricultural land that is now covered by exceptional circumstances support to beyond 50 per cent," Mr Vaile told reporters.
The areas include 35 areas where aid was due to expire in a few weeks' time and nine areas where aid had already expired.
Today's announcement follows last week's $350 million expansion of EC aid and Mr Vaile said more help could come.
He said front-line assistance was needed to encourage farming families to stay on the land.
"We don't believe the day will ever come when the Australian community would be prepared to turn its back on its farming community, given the significant contribution that they make into our economy and certainly into the culture of Australia," he said.
However, there was no specific help for small businesses in country towns which were struggling to cope with the drought.
"Our first responsibility needs to be to those farming families and that flows through to those businesses," Mr Vaile said.
Mr Vaile said today's additional assistance may not be the end of the drought relief.
"We may not be at the end of the government's response as we assess all of those circumstances (affecting farmers)," Mr Vaile said.
Today's announcement involves 16 EC areas in NSW, nine in Victoria, 16 in Queensland, two in South Australian and one in Western Australia.
Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said he was in discussions with his WA counterpart Kim Chance to finalise an additional EC grant for the Southern Rangelands district of WA, stretching from Shark Bay to Menzies/Boulder.
The government also announced professional business and financial planning grants of up to $5,000 to eligible farmers in areas that have been EC-declared for more than three years, and $9 million for family and emotional counselling.
The Country Women's Association will receive a further $4 million to provide emergency grants to individuals and communities.
Farmers will no longer have to have operated without government support for two of the past five years to qualify for interest rate subsidies under the EC program, and those subsidies will increase from $300,000 to $500,000.
The deposit cap on the Farm Management Deposits scheme will be lifted to $400,000, and the non-primary production income test to $65,000.
