Doreen White's family are local farmers who are doing it tough, no doubt along with many others in the region who find themselves hand feeding and battling drought by de-stocking through necessity, and dealing with Centrelink because it administers the Farm Household Allowance (FHA) that puts food on their table.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For eight months that was precisely where the White family found itself, reporting fortnightly and being paid by Centrelink. They had no choice but to de-stock. To Centrelink, it was an income of $5000, which left them owing a debt of about $18,000, that they were told about by a phone call in August last year.
"Even now, we have no funds to pay this debit. We have no weekly wage coming into the household and the little money we do have goes towards keeping us and our current stock alive," said a family member.
The FHA commenced in July 2014, and an independent panel was appointed to review it in September 2018. Centrelink's inability to administer the allowance was highlighted to the government in the resulting report titled Rebuilding the FHA: A Better Way Forward For Supporting Farmers in Financial Hardship in May.
The Panel was scathing of the way the FHA was being administered by Centrelink and found, "...the single biggest challenge facing the success of the FHA was the program's tension between addressing farm business issues while being designed around the social security; a system designed to support individuals.".
"The Panel heard stories during almost all consultations detailing people's difficulties and frustrations in applying for the FHA. ... The Panel strongly believes that decoupling the FHA program from the Social Security Act 1991 will create a tailored program that should more effectively reach those farmers in financial hardship," the report's executive summary read.
"This report offers recommendations to decouple the FHA from social security legislation and improve mutual obligations to meet the needs of farmers in financial hardship, and encourage a more proactive approach to address the challenges farmers face in order to improve their long term financial outcomes."
ALSO READ:
Member for New England Barnaby Joyce said he thought further support was needed because the drought was now worse.
"Not because it is drier, but because people have got no money," he said.
"This is going to require further packages to come forward.
"This drought will end, but in the mean time there's just no money around. It's not just effecting the people on the land, it's crucifying them, but it's also effecting our people in the towns."
Mr Joyce said any recommended changes to the FHA were a matter for the Minister, Social Securities Minister and also the Prime Minister.
"For my part, I can just lobby them, and that is precisely what I am doing," he said.
The FHA Review made sic recommendations for change, including major simplification of the application process and a redesign of the income assessment framework to recognise the irregularity of farm income.
It suggested the FHA program be rebuilt to, "...prioritise a meaningful mutual obligation process, whereby farmers work with the Rural Financial Counselling Service (not Centrelink) to engage in a viability assessment enabling them to either plan through the current financial hardship and prepare for future business shocks, or exit the industry with dignity."
Since the program commenced, the Government has increased the farm asset test to $5 million, which is almost double, and extended the program eligibility from three years to four, among other changes.
A Department of Agriculture spokesperson said the report was being considered by the government.
Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management David Littleproud had not commented at the time we published this article.
