FARMER and Bogan Shire mayor Ray Donald has called on the state government to stop thinking and start acting as drought drains the life out of communities in the far north and west of the state.
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Advice this week from Minster for Western NSW and Barwon MP Kevin Humphries that the state and federal governments were rethinking drought policy has prompted Cr Donald to offer some of his own.
The community stalwart wants the state government to reintroduce subsidies and encourage the federal government to provide assistance "similar to what Exceptional Circumstances (EC) payments used to be".
Cr Donald also thinks it is time NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson saw for herself the devastation caused by mother nature.
The long-time mayor reports of a "critical" situation in communities such as Bourke, Brewarrina, Walgett and Coonamble where the drought began settling in 12 to 18 months ago.
He thinks it a "terrible pity" that assistance was not forthcoming "many months ago to help people cope with this severe drought".
"The big problems seems to be that droughts are still not considered natural disasters by federal or state governments, even though they are similar to fires and floods in that they come from extremities of nature," Cr Donald said.
Mayor Donald reported that the state government on coming to power scrapped drought declarations which had been the trigger for Exceptional Circumstances support from the federal government.
He said the NSW government also dispensed with subsidies for the movement of water, fodder and stock to agistment, but continued to provide them for farmers sending stock to slaughter.
"The state government needs to immediately get some assistance out to people by way of reintroducing subsides for the movement of water, fodder and stock to agistment, not just to slaughter," he said.
"They need to liaise with the Commonwealth to try and get some form of federal assistance paid to landholders who are in drought-affected areas, similar to what the EC payments used to be.
"The state ag minister needs to come and have a look at these situations and not rely on reports from local state members or a rural advisory committee."
Cr Donald said the announcement by federal Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce of low-interest loans did not get the NSW government off the hook.
"The drought's been ravaging some areas of north and western NSW well over half the time this state government has been in power, and they are now just moving to do something about it," he said.
"You'd think this was the first drought we've ever had."
This week Mr Humphries told of the western landscape losing "well over 80 per cent of livestock" to agistment or markets.
"I have constituents who have been feeding for almost 12 months now, so our landholder concerns have been heard for some time now and all things are being actively considered at both the state and federal level," he said.
