"Rainfall’s usually 400-450mm, it’s 180mm this year," he said. "We don’t have enough feed for our sheep. This year’s the worst on record since 1966 and no one’s doing anything about it."
Mr Griffiths said he reached out via phone to Albany MP Peter Watson to no avail in mid-November and emailed federal O’Connor MP Rick Wilson for help on November 14.The Australian Bureau of Meteorology defines a drought as a prolonged, abnormally dry period with insufficient water availability for normal use. To qualify for relief under drought conditions, a state must not have any rainfall for 12 consecutive months.
WA Farmers Federation president Tony York said the Jerramungup pocket was an anomaly to the fruitful harvest season in other parts of the state.Mr Griffiths said he sent a long letter to WA Agriculture Minister Alannah McTiernan’s office, dated November 27, asking for household financial assistance, a drought pilot program and grants to build additional dams for preservation.
Ms McTiernan’s office assistance was available without a drought declaration and pointed to the Farm Household Allowance payments, an income and assets-based financial package. But for farmers like Mr Griffiths, going through the process of proving his income and assets, as well as the time taken to call the hotline, remains troublesome.A spokesman at the Federal Department of Agriculture said the payment was a point-in-time system that didn't take into account the previous year’s income.
"The FHA is an uncapped, demand-driven program," he said. "Farmers should not self-assess their eligibility for FHA, with the free Rural Financial Counselling Service able to assist farmers in applying." In terms of application difficulty, the spokesman said the application had been cut by a third and eligibility criteria was at the front."I haven’t looked that far myself. I’ll sum it all up when my accounts come in," he said.
"You don’t want to be the first one to receive a bail-out. It’s always pride that gets in the way of business decisions."Mr McTaggart has cut down labour costs to only two people and has performed five to six full night shifts himself in the past two weeks to cope.
Sheep Producers Australia chief executive Graham Smith said the gap between the government’s services and farmers had become an increasing problem."Sometimes, it’s better to tell a farming group; farmer-to-farmer would go down a lot better."
A spokeswoman for the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said the department was working with groups like Fitzgerald Biosphere to help producers. "The staff provide producer groups with cropping, pasture and livestock technical information to assist producers with decision making in tough times," she said.However Belinda Lay, a farmer in the Country Woman’s Association WA, said fear of government interest meant more may look towards keeping silent or sourcing non-state grant options.
"When you reach out to a government handout, you're on their radar, they’ll want to know what you're doing and you can lose your autonomy. At CWA, we’ve made our $5000 grant application process anonymous," she said. "Farming is quite isolated. Being able to get help without disclosing to everybody is important."