Scone-based John Preston contacted the Daily Liberal this week on the back of the launch of our ‘Make It Rain’ campaign, and said every day without rainfall or the promise of a funding package was hurting our primary producers.

Ms Job was formally announced in her new role last week at a media event in Dubbo, where local landholders told of the conditions crippling their livelihoods.

“The stories were horrendous, and it’s not just in your patch that it’s being felt,” Mr Preston said.

“Up in the Hunter we have farmers destocking. They can’t afford to keep their stock because the paddocks are dry and so are the bank accounts.

“These are people who have put their heart and soul into the Nationals. We need a legislated drought assistance package, and the Shooters Party will be campaigning to make that happen.

“We’ll give Pip Job the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks while she gets around but something needs to happen, and happen soon.”

Mr Preston said expecting farmers to take out loans to ride out the dry spell wasn’t fair, stating “no other civilised country asks its primary producers to do this”.

“In any other enterprise this is essentially an insolvency event. Could you imagine Gerry Harvey going through something like this every five or six years?” he said.

“The government wants people to enter the industry but there’s a high fixed cost, volatility in pricing, and then something like this happens and they want people to take out loans. Whether they’re interest-free or not, that money still has to be paid back by people who at the moment can’t afford to run their business.”

The Shooters Party are yet to declare whether they will run a candidate in the seat of Dubbo at next year’s State election.

At the moment, sitting member Troy Grant has indicated he will run for Nationals preselection, with Stephen Lawrence (Labor) and independent Mathew Dickerson also confirmed candidates.