As public support ramps up for drought relief, one local farmer is questioning the government’s commitment to farmers.
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The NSW Government boasts a $500 million Emergency Drought Relief Package to help farmers face the current drought. The three main elements of the package are $190 million for transport subsidies, $100 million for waiving various fees and charges and $150 million for the Farm Innovation Fund (FIF) infrastructure program.
Inverell cattle farmer Penny Henley is skeptical of the package after investigating the waiver of class one agricultural conditional vehicle registration fees.
“If you find out what class one agricultural vehicles covers, it covers things like tractors, augers, harvesters, etc,” Ms Henley said. She said most farmers don’t register those vehicles.
“If you want to move them from place to place, you get a very inexpensive permit to do it - like $20. In the middle of the drought, nobody’s moving anywhere anyway. Certainly not harvesters - there’s nothing to harvest.”
Ms Henley felt the waiver was either deceptive, or an indicator of policy makers who were removed from ground level issues.
“It appeared to be a give, when in actual fact, it’s a nothing,” she said.
“It’s political speak. It sounds good, but in detail it’s worthless.”
She felt an increase on the discount already available to primary producers for light vehicles up to 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass would make more sense.
“We’re verified, we’re in the system, and all the state government would do is forgoing a bit of registration revenue. You wouldn’t have to fork out anything, it would be easy,” she said.