Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Drought assistance

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (18:25): (1665) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Agriculture, and the action I seek is for all local government areas in the Northern Victoria Region to be included in the drought support package. Farmers in the northern regions of Victoria feel they are being unfairly excluded from the government’s recently expanded drought relief package. On 16 May the minister announced an expansion of this funding, which is vital to keep our drought-affected farmers going. This expansion only added another 14 LGAs to the 11 LGAs already eligible for help. Northern Victorian farmers feel this is unjust and unfair. They are suffering from a lack of rain and high water, feed and running costs just as much as their counterparts in the southern regions. Out of the entire Northern Victoria Region, the largest electorate in the state, just one LGA has been included in the drought support package – just one.

The mayors and farmers from my electorate have all reached out asking for help. They want to know why they have been excluded from this package, which could quite literally save the lives of our farmers. There is increasing concern for the mental health of farmers in the region, with reports of at least 17 taking their lives in the past few weeks. That is 17 families missing a loved one from the dinner table tonight and 17 communities left in mourning. In 2023 a National Farmers Federation report found that 45 per cent of farmers have had thoughts of self-harm or suicide and 30 per cent of farmers have attempted self-harm or suicide. In 2023, 281 regional Victorians took their lives, an increase of 7 per cent on the previous year.

One can only suspect that the unimaginable pressures currently placed on our farmers and regional communities played a part in some of these tragedies. The minister and this government claim to care for our farmers. Nothing this government has done in recent weeks proves this. By excluding these LGAs, the government has demonstrated just how little regard it has for our farmers, not to mention that farmers and landholders are about to be slugged by the government’s outrageous emergency services and volunteers tax in the coming months. Our farmers are at breaking point, some are beyond breaking point and some are ready to walk off the land. As the signs popping up all over my electorate say: no farmers, no food.

The action I seek is for the minister to include all local government areas in the Northern Victoria Region in the drought support package.