Dorothea Mackellar's 'My Country' tells of drought and flooding plains, but the flooding bit is a memory that has evaporated into a sea of dust and smoke with much of northern NSW and southern Queensland paralysed in drought never experienced in 160 years.
The massive loss of farmers is a national disgrace that will require more than half baked drought plans, called for by farm leaders, who appear bereft of new ideas to tackle the wicked problems confronting agriculture.
Since 1973 we have lost nearly 50 per cent of our farmers, stripping farm communities and rural towns of their very lifeblood all in the name of competition policy and productivity, while allowing our cities to grind to a halt as they choke in overwhelming numbers.
The unprecedented drought in northern NSW and southern Queensland has created a social firestorm that is decimating farmers and the social fabric of rural towns. Without major intervention by government, much of this area runs the risk of withering on the vine.
The bureaucratic gurus say competition is critical for national wealth, yet it has delivered an unbalanced result allowing the shrinking of rural Australia to a shadow of its former self, while cities are becoming much less attractive to live in as government infrastructure fails to keep up with growth.
Perhaps the solution can be found overseas, provided governments agree that the provision of food, generating export income, thriving rural communities, mitigating carbon emissions and land management are top order importance. But it will take dramatically different thinking and strong leadership from our prime minister.
In Britain, they have bitten the bullet on these issues by providing assistance to farmers, resulting in 60 per cent more farmers than Australia - 138,000 compared to our 83,000 and shrinking fast. Before the drought started I stayed on a 500 acre farm in Somerset, England. The farmer leased a further 500 acres but was disappointed if he could not bank 450,000 pounds (AU$900,000) a year. A high portion of his income came from EEC subsidies helping him achieve targets on environmental issues.
There is no question we are in a crisis that requires some clever thinking. Worshipping at the altar of competition policy has delivered fewer farmers, a few mega family farms, increased corporatisation and overseas owned farms with rural town disintegration. Young people cannot get going and smaller farmers are becoming a threatened species.
Prime Minister Morrison, a fellow farmer accurately described to me that "the sparkle in farmers' eyes are going out".
Building dams is good for the communities that need them but only helps 2 per cent of farmers. As an emergency action do what you did for the northern Queensland floods in the short term, then establish a process to tackle our long-term challenges.
