The Prime Minister's drought taskforce coordinator, Major General Stephen Day, was in Mudgee this week to talk to farmers, locals and council about conditions, drought resiliency and impacts on the broader community.
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He said that getting out to impacted areas is to; make sure there's cohesion to the variety of support that's available to farmers and their communities; get to the communities to hear the voices of those directly affected; and develop a long term strategy for drought preparedness in the country.
"I can't do those from a desk in the city somewhere, I've got to be on the ground," Major General Day added. "It's from [those affected], via me to the big table in Canberra, and I report to the Prime Minister every night."
From his travels he said he's learned that it's the "extensive geographical nature" of the current drought that's exacerbating its impact, because there aren't as many areas that can shoulder some of the burden for those harder hit.
"What farmers say to me is that no two droughts are the same, they all have their various characteristics," he said. "And what people are saying is the problem with this drought is the extensive geographical nature of it, across the eastern seaboard of Australia. Farmers will tell you that in the Millennium Drought they had options to agist, they didn't have to sell their livestock because there were places they could agist them for a season or two - those options aren't available in this drought.
"That means there's widespread competition for feed and that's pushed the price up and that's consumed people's resources more quickly."
Droughts are a team sport, not an individual game, play as a team you'll get through it.
- Major General Stephen Day, drought taskforce coordinator
Major General Day added that in rural areas when the agricultural sector is hit a ripple moves right through the community.
"The first people to be affected by the drought are farmers, but that means their incomes drop and they spend less in town, then businesses in town have less money and they themselves have less money to spend at other businesses. So you get this cyclical effect around the community," he said.
"The message is that any programs, and understanding in preparing for drought, needs to factor in the community. And in fact, the Federal Government has the Drought Communities Program which gives councils access to up to a million dollars in this current financial year for local projects, with the aim of trying to replace some of that lost income."
However, the Joint Agency Drought Taskforce Coordinator-General said that the local region was coping as a community, which is what's needed to get through a drought.
"It's clear that Mudgee and its citizens have done well to have diversity in their economy, some things are okay in Mudgee but the agricultural sector is struggling from the drought," he said.
"There were two farmers in the meeting that we've had and they said they prepare for drought and they make allowances, but this is as bad as they've seen and in the second year they're starting to come to the end of their resources.
"They're worried about that and I would be too. And that impacts on how you feel about your future.
"But we know that communities that stay together, that have good local leadership and a goal to work towards, seem to do best in these difficult times. So the council and other community leadership organisations have a really important role here to make sure the community comes together and works its way through this.
"Droughts are a team sport, not an individual game, play as a team you'll get through it."
