23 October 2008
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tony Burke
Interview with Alexandra Kirk, ABC AM
E&OE
Subjects: Drought, expert panel report on the social impacts
Tony Burke: As this panel went around Australia for example, a father found out how difficult the circumstances his son were in while his son was giving evidence to the committee.
Alexandra Kirk: That was the first time that he heard it?
Tony Burke: He had absolutely no idea. They had been asked many times how the drought affected their farm business, how the drought affected productivity. Consistently the panel was told this was the first time anyone had gone to them and said, “How does the drought affect you? How does it affect your family?”
From those sorts of stories we realise that in many ways it is not just that people weren’t telling enquiries, they often weren’t telling each other.
Alexandra Kirk: The boys in farm families often leave school early to go back to the farm. They want to relieve the pressure on their families, on their parents because that is what they think that they can do to help. Is that the best thing that they can or should do?
Tony Burke: And it is not just the boys. It is at every level of the family, there being a concept that the farm is so different to any other workplace – a concept that the farm isn’t just the workplace, it is the home and often it is the generational family history as well.
And young boys being willing to forego education and their parents being willing often to endure some fairly extreme hardship – even when every economic sense might say it is time to make a different decision.
Alexandra Kirk: There are fewer and fewer ways, it seems, for rural families to interact and have a break during the drought. Populations move away, sporting clubs shut down. Money is so tight they can’t afford to socialise. Is there an answer to that?
Tony Burke: This is all evidence that we don’t have the policy settings right yet. And that is not a criticism of the previous government. Significant funds have gone to try to help rural communities but you can’t have these sorts of social outcomes and say that we have got it right.
So some of them go to the straight community resourcing issues. Some of them go to mental health issues. Some of them go to people who have actually done OK during the drought but done it because they put themselves in serious hardship during good times. Then you end up with a sense of division within communities over who is eligible for government support now and who is not.
Alexandra Kirk: And who is the most deserving
Tony Burke: That’s right. And so it opens up those sorts of divisions and when you get those divisions in communities, it can make the sense of isolation even more serious.
Alexandra Kirk: A lot of the families just want to stay and so they will put up with almost anything in order to continue the generational link to the farm. Is that something that needs to change?
Tony Burke: I think that is something which, to some extent, is uniquely part of the identity of rural families and is something that, in so many ways, you do want to admire.
What we want to look at in terms of policy here though: How can we help them with their planning and preparation during the good times to make sure that those sorts of dreams of generation after generation staying on the land are dreams that will always be part of the future of Australia’s landscape.
ENDS