"Pay graziers a decent living, not welfare" said Tom Garrett,
Chairman of South West NRM today.
Mr Garrett was launching a new scheme called "Pasture Recovery" by
which a fee would be paid to landholders to spell part or all of
their property after the season breaks.
South West NRM is a community-based public company accredited to
deliver funds from the Commonwealth's Natural Heritage Trust and
National Landcare Program. It has reserved $200,000 through its
Futurescapes program of funding for on-ground works to pay
landholders in an innovative way.
Landholders will be invited to submit bids for the amount of fees
they wish to be paid to remove stock from parts of or all of their
properties, to allow the grasses to set seed and replenish the
pasture.
Successful landholders would grant to South West NRM a lease for
between one and five years in return for a regular monthly payment
that is guaranteed, regardless of rain, stock prices or continuing
drought.
"We are deeply sympathetic to the pressures the situation of
graziers who are faced with making difficult decisions every day:
whether to sell or keep stock, whether to invest or not invest in
waters and other works, whether to stay on the property in hope of
a good run of seasons or to call it quits", said Mr Garrett.
“Our new scheme respects the role of graziers as custodians
of the land resource that provides Australia with its food and
fibre. It is intended to compensate them for their stewardship in a
way that offers dignity and reflects the importance of their role
as custodians.”
Mr Garrett said that while he welcomed the commitment to rural
Australia that the Commonwealth government had made by contributing
an additional $714 million in drought aid last week, this was still
a welfare payment, and by itself does not relieve the pressure
being placed on the soils and vegetation of Queensland's
rangelands.
"The soils and vegetation systems of the Mulga lands are by their
nature of low productivity, even in good seasons. They must be
allowed time to recover their fertility and to restore carbon to
the soil. Drought aid by itself will not prevent landholders from
pushing stock back on their properties as soon as green pick is
available. This is the time when native pastures are most
vulnerable and the future productivity of the land can be most
severely damaged.”
Mr Garrett said that the scheme has arisen from a motion passed at
the company's Annual General Meeting last Friday and had been
supported by community members of the company.
"The modest amount of funds that we can provide is nowhere near
enough to address the problem region-wide. I call upon both sides
of national politics to match our modest initiative with some
serious money. After a decade of drought, graziers in our part of
the world are now in a worse situation than they have ever been,
and the properties are likewise.”
Tom Garrett
Chair, South West NRM Ltd
Mob: 0427 291 155
4 October 2007
