RADIO PRECIS – Interview with Tom Mann – Wednesday 2 April 2025

Geoff Brock, Independent Member for Stuart (ABC NORTH & WEST 9.21-9.29)
Call for additional drought assistance for farmers

(Mann: Are you a farmer or a regional business that’s been doing it tough due to the drought? Would you like a little bit of relief or extra help from the State Government? There is mounting pressure on the Malinauskas Government to provide some sort of financial assistance for those who are severely affected by recent dry times all across the state. One of those people who is now calling out for rural aid is Independent Member for Stuart Geoff Brock. Your electorate covers a pretty substantial part of South Australia and you’ve recently been on a trip up to the northern parts of the state, what have you been hearing from primary producers?)

Well a couple of things, I’ve been getting out as much as I can, it’s a big area but some of the stories that I’ve been hearing out there, it’s been traumatic. Other regional members have been probably hearing the same thing, but specifically around the Orroroo area, Carrieton, all of those areas I’ve seen sheep out there and there’s no feed whatsoever. They are walking around in basically dirt and trying to get something to eat. The other thing is that there’s a lot of farmers out there, and I haven’t had mass meetings, but I talk to farmers individually or with a small group who want to be able to talk about these issues, some of the issues they’re facing are very, very challenging and very personal. There’s a lot of people out there with pride and they are not coming forward. There are some people, their income for this year is down 10%, and there’s others out there who have no income, no income whatsoever until December this year, providing of course that we get a good season coming forward, that’s the biggest issue. The other thing is there’s a lot of people out there having to sell some of their stock to actually get the feed, the fodder for whatever stock is remaining and the heartbreaking issue there is that they’ve built that up, it’s part of their family. I was talking to some people there and one of the little children came out and said to his dad, ‘dad, are you okay?’ Now, this is a six-or-seven-year-old child asking the dad if he’s okay.

The rural areas are having these challenges, and I know there are subsidies out there, there are different grants and different assistance through the Commonwealth and also the $18.1 million for feed from the State Government, in November, December last year. The other thing is that these people aren’t spending money, so that’s having a downward flow to the smaller communities where they’re not spending money, and so therefore they’re not getting an income. They can’t continue to have the staff there, they’ve got challenges with their staff and overheads. I’ve written to the Premier on two or three occasions. Three or four weeks ago I wrote another letter to the Premier asking him to give serious consideration to the opportunity for further assistance. What the crossbench Members have done, the five crossbench Members that are across all of regional South Australia, including Mount Barker, we’ve signed a letter, and we addressed it to the Premier. I’ve been addressing my correspondence to the Premier and also copying the Treasurer in, and the Minister for Primary Industries. Again yesterday I asked a further question, and the Premier responded saying, ‘yes, there will be further aid, but you need to understand how and where we could be able to get it.’ He’s having a roundtable conference, I think it’s today, with all the key stakeholders including Grain Producers SA, grain producers, Livestock SA, the wine/grape industry and Rural Business Support. That’s very, very important but certainly Tom, it’s very drastic out there and we need to do something, and we need to have the rain, that’s the biggest issue.

(Mann: You mentioned the pride, I think it’s fair to say, so you know, you can really look at the stories that we’re hearing already and really assume that it is for some parts much worse and obviously you’ve heard from the Premier. Today there is a roundtable set to happen and was there a sense of they want to understand and ensure that the targeting of this aid is going to the right places, was there a sense of the urgency and how quickly that could happen?) In Question Time yesterday I raised the question and I’ve been writing directly to the Premier and copying in the money man, the Treasurer, and also the Minister. The crossbench is doing the same thing.

We are very confident that the Government has been taking this very seriously, but how do we, in conjunction with other organisations, do this in a good way that’s going to get the best benefit for not only, yes, the current situation, but also some people will not have an income until December this year. That’s the other challenge, and there are people out there that had nothing in the last harvest, didn’t even get any grain for next year. Then the banks, on my information, some banks have been very, very good and some banks have been very hard. Again, I think that the Premier and the Minister will be at this roundtable with the key stakeholders. Let’s hope from that there we can get a swift resolution from that and get the right support we can. There are five charitable organisations out there looking at bringing in some hay from wherever the other hay may be, but also they need to have some assistance. I’m very sure from this roundtable we’ll get some response, and the Treasurer indicated yesterday that, through another question, this situation may not be able to wait until the June Budget. That’s a good indication I think they’re looking at it seriously and I’m hoping that some sort of relief will come forward before they have to do the June Budget.

(Mann: You’ve been speaking about targeted relief, we know the amount of positive impact farmers and agriculturalists and pastoralists have on the economy. We’ve been hearing stories about small businesses from around our region as well have been doing it tough. Would you like to see or have there been calls for assistance for small businesses that have been affected by those ripple impacts?) Yeah, I did ask a supplementary yesterday that’s just another question to the Premier, when he has this consideration could he give serious consideration to some of these smaller communities with their commercial activities, the retail sector, bearing in mind it’s not only them it’s also the transport industry. The transport themselves is not transporting gear from around the areas it’s more than just a farm it’s the associated industries that are impacted. I’m very hopeful that there will be something coming from this roundtable about assisting the commercial or the retail sectors.

Also the farming communities, like the livestock and all of those people that are getting farming equipment, they won’t be selling anything, there’s a real domino effect here. I am praying and everybody else is praying for some decent rains, and I wish we could just get a little bit of the rain that’s happening in Queensland. We don’t want torrential rain because there’s that much dust and wind going at the moment and the topsoil is just going everywhere. We just need a gentle rain to settle everything down and to be able to then, hopefully, have a good season next year. (Mann: We certainly echo your calls there, thank you so much for your time).