It is still unclear whether WA will be eligible to access much of the $324 million allocated in the Federal Drought Support Scheme announcement.
The existing Farm Finance Concessional Loans Scheme is not specific to a particular farming sector, region or reason for hardship.
In contrast, the assistance available under the Drought Concessional Loans Scheme is targeted to those farm businesses that have limited or no short-term income as a direct result of drought conditions, but are viable in the longer term.
As with the existing Farm Finance Concessional Loans Scheme, farm business applications will be individually assessed.
The $12M water grant scheme, the $10M feral pest scheme, and the $10.7 million mental and social health grant, as part of the measures, are linked to criteria associated with drought.
It appears that the Interim Farm Family Payment has relaxed criteria over the current Transitional Farm Family Payment scheme.
WAFarmers is working to demonstrate to the Federal Government that certain areas within Western Australia, such as the Eastern wheatbelt and sectors of the Northern Agricultural Region, have been suffering from drought conditions for several years.
