Firies to receive financial support

[icyfroth]

Rural Fire Service Volunteers in NSW will receive financial support from the Morrison Government. The payments will provide for lost income of up to $300 per day up to a total of up to $6,000 per person.

https://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/story/6559941/federal-government-agrees-to-nsw-volunteer-firi...

rime Minister Scott Morrison said the payments would be equivalent to 20 days of emergency leave for the eligible volunteers.

It follows the government's announcement last week that Commonwealth public service volunteers would get at least four weeks of paid leave to fight bushfires under a plan to ensure more "boots on the ground".

"This announcement provides employees of small and medium sized businesses and self employed volunteers with the same level of support," Mr Morrison said in a statement on Sunday.

[chameleon54]

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@icyfroth wrote:

Is it not up to the state governments to administer state emegencies, though?

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There are both state and federal drought initiatives.

One of the bizarre outcomes of the media bias towards drought in NSW & Qld. but ignoring the worst affected state S.A. is programmes such as " Buy A Bale " etc. These are heavily subsidised by East coast donations and promotions and aid organisations have the funds to outbid legitimate drought affected farmers in S.A for bulk lots of hay. This then bypasses, S.A farmers and is instead loaded on semi trailers and trucked halfway across the country at huge expense to drought affected farmers interstate, leaving S.A farmers struggling to buy hay for their own  drought affected stock.

Unfortunately this is the one of the crazy outcomes of jingoistic, ( East Coast ) media driven, donation programmes where people feel good about doing stuff to " help the farmers " but create more hidden problems than they actually solve.

Like managing the River Murray and the current National fires, Nationally based problems need nationally based solutions. With modern transport and communications, the state based governments are an anachronism of the past. We are grossly over governed and over regulated for our population size.

[chameleon54]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

---

@icyfroth wrote:

Is it not up to the state governments to administer state emegencies, though?

---

There are both state and federal drought initiatives.

One of the bizarre outcomes of the media bias towards drought in NSW & Qld. but ignoring the worst affected state S.A. is programmes such as " Buy A Bale " etc. These are heavily subsidised by East coast donations and promotions and aid organisations have the funds to outbid legitimate drought affected farmers in S.A for bulk lots of hay. This then bypasses, S.A farmers and is instead loaded on semi trailers and trucked halfway across the country at huge expense to drought affected farmers interstate, leaving S.A farmers struggling to buy hay for their own  drought affected stock.

Unfortunately this is the one of the crazy outcomes of jingoistic, ( East Coast ) media driven, donation programmes where people feel good about doing stuff to " help the farmers " but create more hidden problems than they actually solve.

Like managing the River Murray and the current National fires, Nationally based problems need nationally based solutions. With modern transport and communications, the state based governments are an anachronism of the past. We are grossly over governed and over regulated for our population size.

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I,ve just had this experience myself. My remote property is classed as being in severe rainfall deficiency on the BOM map mentioned earlier. A neighbour had baled up a frosted wheat crop. I asked about purchasing some of the hay from him, but most of it was contracted to N.S.W farmers who are heavily subsidised on both freight and purchase cost by the N.S.W Government. The price I had to pay to compete was out of this world and I could only afford a few bales. ( no " buy a bale " or government subsidies for me. I live in S.A.  ) Just enough that I can give the sheep something if autumn rains come on time. If they are late ????

But thats OK. The heavily subsidised N.S.W farmers have got plenty of my neighbours hay.

[davidc4430]

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@davidc4430 wrote:

so firies in other states?

nsw is somehow more deserving?

not a good look as usual for scomo.

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on the noon news they said 'all states' could sign up for this 'plan'

first time i had heard any mention of other states.

however the small prints begining to smell, those able to claim this copensations going to be quite limited.

[icyfroth]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

---

@chameleon54 wrote:

---

@icyfroth wrote:

Is it not up to the state governments to administer state emegencies, though?

---

There are both state and federal drought initiatives.

One of the bizarre outcomes of the media bias towards drought in NSW & Qld. but ignoring the worst affected state S.A. is programmes such as " Buy A Bale " etc. These are heavily subsidised by East coast donations and promotions and aid organisations have the funds to outbid legitimate drought affected farmers in S.A for bulk lots of hay. This then bypasses, S.A farmers and is instead loaded on semi trailers and trucked halfway across the country at huge expense to drought affected farmers interstate, leaving S.A farmers struggling to buy hay for their own  drought affected stock.

Unfortunately this is the one of the crazy outcomes of jingoistic, ( East Coast ) media driven, donation programmes where people feel good about doing stuff to " help the farmers " but create more hidden problems than they actually solve.

Like managing the River Murray and the current National fires, Nationally based problems need nationally based solutions. With modern transport and communications, the state based governments are an anachronism of the past. We are grossly over governed and over regulated for our population size.

---

I,ve just had this experience myself. My remote property is classed as being in severe rainfall deficiency on the BOM map mentioned earlier. A neighbour had baled up a frosted wheat crop. I asked about purchasing some of the hay from him, but most of it was contracted to N.S.W farmers who are heavily subsidised on both freight and purchase cost by the N.S.W Government. The price I had to pay to compete was out of this world and I could only afford a few bales. ( no " buy a bale " or government subsidies for me. I live in S.A.  ) Just enough that I can give the sheep something if autumn rains come on time. If they are late ????

But thats OK. The heavily subsidised N.S.W farmers have got plenty of my neighbours hay.

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I'm sorry to hear that, Cham. I always contribute to Buy A Bale, thinking I'm helping the farmers. I'm sorry it's falling so short of the mark.

I did read that Buy a Bale was contributing to inflated hay prices.

What's the solution?

I do know that the NSW government is awash with money.

[chameleon54]

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@icyfroth wrote:

---

@chameleon54 wrote:

---

@chameleon54 wrote:

---

@icyfroth wrote:

Is it not up to the state governments to administer state emegencies, though?

---

There are both state and federal drought initiatives.

One of the bizarre outcomes of the media bias towards drought in NSW & Qld. but ignoring the worst affected state S.A. is programmes such as " Buy A Bale " etc. These are heavily subsidised by East coast donations and promotions and aid organisations have the funds to outbid legitimate drought affected farmers in S.A for bulk lots of hay. This then bypasses, S.A farmers and is instead loaded on semi trailers and trucked halfway across the country at huge expense to drought affected farmers interstate, leaving S.A farmers struggling to buy hay for their own  drought affected stock.

Unfortunately this is the one of the crazy outcomes of jingoistic, ( East Coast ) media driven, donation programmes where people feel good about doing stuff to " help the farmers " but create more hidden problems than they actually solve.

Like managing the River Murray and the current National fires, Nationally based problems need nationally based solutions. With modern transport and communications, the state based governments are an anachronism of the past. We are grossly over governed and over regulated for our population size.

---

I,ve just had this experience myself. My remote property is classed as being in severe rainfall deficiency on the BOM map mentioned earlier. A neighbour had baled up a frosted wheat crop. I asked about purchasing some of the hay from him, but most of it was contracted to N.S.W farmers who are heavily subsidised on both freight and purchase cost by the N.S.W Government. The price I had to pay to compete was out of this world and I could only afford a few bales. ( no " buy a bale " or government subsidies for me. I live in S.A.  ) Just enough that I can give the sheep something if autumn rains come on time. If they are late ????

But thats OK. The heavily subsidised N.S.W farmers have got plenty of my neighbours hay.

---

I'm sorry to hear that, Cham. I always contribute to Buy A Bale, thinking I'm helping the farmers. I'm sorry it's falling so short of the mark.

I did read that Buy a Bale was contributing to inflated hay prices.

What's the solution?

I do know that the NSW government is awash with money.

---

The Qld government has recognised the distortions its subsidies are causing to hay markets and has actually scrapped subsidising farmers to buy hay.

One of the biggest problems with the N.S.W governments subsidy scheme is a very large loophole they have left in the scheme. It is so large that you would assume it has been done on purpose. The N.S.W governments scheme is only supposed to subsidise the cost of freight, not actually to subsidise the purchase cost of a bale of hay. Therefore in theory, not inflating hay costs interstate. The loophole is that the subsidy is set at a maximum of $5 per km. per load up to 1500 km. Maximum total $7500 per semi trailer load of hay. Soooo..... The farmers selling the hay offer it at a delivered price per tonne rather than ex farm + freight. They often run their own trucks. With fuel use of 3 km. per litre of diesel they can deliver a load of hay 1000 km and then drive home empty on maybe $1000 worth of diesel and possibly the same again in running / ownership costs. It costs them perhaps $2000 to deliver the fodder, but on the 1000 km. example, pocket another $3000 on top of this amount in government subsidy. This works out to $107 per tonne on a 28 tonne semi load to pay against the cost of the hay. Obviously when hay is in short supply it just pushes up the price of hay interstate by a similar amount. The further away the hay is, the higher the subsidy per tonne on the purchase cost.

The " Buy A Bale " schemes have the same effect. The mainly Eastern seaboard public donate money to buy hay. The Charities can then pay what ever it costs, regardless of the effect this is having in a limited supply market. There is no controls on the spending. Obviously a buyer with unlimited funds per bale and no skin in the game and no constraints on whether the price is actually commercially viable can pay any price asked , grossly inflating the price of hay in a limited market and restricting supply to genuine drought affected farmers in the local supply zone..

The solution is difficult politically but farmers must learn to make their own preparations for drought. I have farmed in marginal country for three decades with one severe drought expected on average every 5 years. We store fodder in the good years ( rather than baling it and selling it for profit ), we save money using the existing government run farm management deposit scheme which only taxes the money in the " drought " year it is withdrawn and we make sure we have reliable water supplies, set up and paid for in the good years, rather than waiting for a crisis and then scrambling once the drought has already hit. Its basic, simple stuff but too many farmers are either too profit driven to save for the lean years or too inexperienced with drought due to farming in previously reliable areas, that are now more prone to drought due to climate change.

In my case I have deliberately spread my grazing business over a 250 km. range of both marginal country that is often in drought, but responds quickly to rain and high rainfall country that provides some protection against drought. It is the same theory of environmental diversification used by Sir Sydney Kidman, but just on a very small scale. I also tripled the number of dams on my high rainfall country as soon as I purchased it and did extensive drainage works to capture surface run off and direct it into the dams.

Luckily today I came across a few more bales of hay left over when another semi trailer was loaded this morning and heading for N.S.W. I purchased these in case the drought continues. They cost me a small fortune and 15% more than just 4 weeks ago, but they will give me a bit of a buffer if things continue as they are now. Just a bit more self funded drought insurance without any help from governments or charity organisations.