24 May 2005Reporter: Rachel Carbonell
TONY EASTLEY: As the Federal Government prepares to increase its multi-million-dollar drought assistance to people on the land, one of Australia's top land and water experts has warned that it's time to stop handing money to farmers in 'unfarmable' areas.Professor Peter Cullen is a member of the Wentworth Group of Environmental Scientists and the Prime Minister's 2001 Environmentalist of the Year. He says up to 10 per cent of Australia's agricultural land is now unsustainable and not capable of being farmed, and the Government should find dignified ways of getting some farmers off the land.Professor Cullen is speaking here with AM's Rachel Carbonell.PETER CULLEN: It seems to me that the drought does bring into very stark relief those parts of Australia which are just unsustainable. And there are parts that seem to be requiring drought relief about one year out of two on average, and we've probably just got to get the message that these areas shouldn't be farmed, we can't sustain farming there. And when you look at the likely climate change, it's not going to get better, it's probably going to get worse. And rather than help these unduly optimistic farmers hang on year after year in a way that just, in the long term just maximises their misery and maximises the land degradation, we should help them get off the land with dignity and return that land to a lower pressure. The land still needs to be managed to look after weeds and feral animals and fire and so on and those farmers that are remaining maybe need to be paid for those land management services that they're providing.On the other hand, there are sustainable parts of Australian farming which are normally well watered, which are just in the throes of a very unusual drought and we really need to look at the way we can support those people through the situation.And to me there's three agendas. There's the welfare for the families, and they appear to be getting… have difficulty accessing some of the normal social welfare provisions. There's maintaining the farm businesses so that they are viable to go on and produce food and fibre when the drought breaks. And there's minimising the land degradation during this drought period, because we all know that when the land's a moonscape like this, when it does eventually rain, all the soil and top soil washes off and that's what gets into the rivers and causes a whole lot of problems.RACHEL CARBONELL: You've suggested that there are some areas of Australia which are simply unfarmable. Which areas do you think they are?PETER CULLEN: Look, I'm not yet in a position to sort of draw lines on a map, but I think there are areas that every time there is a drought, they're on the front pages of the paper with dust blowing everywhere, and these areas almost self-identify as unsustainable because they're always sticking their hands up for relief under these circumstances.RACHEL CARBONELL: Are there certain farming practices, too, that perhaps need to be looked at because they're not sustainable in particular Australian environments?PETER CULLEN: Look, I think we can always learn a lot from our leading farmers. Some of our really good farmers do know how to manage this landscape during tough periods and I'm sure that if we could get all farmers working to best practice, that would be a help. But very often, Governments have made these farms far too small during, you know, the soldier settlement periods and things like that, so some of the properties just aren't big enough to allow people to use some of the drought strategies that the bigger and better farmers are able to use.RACHEL CARBONELL: You say there are some areas where we just need to get the farmers off the land. Have you got any ideas yet on how we could do that or how the Australian Government could look at a policy like that?PETER CULLEN: Well, governments haven't been very successful at agricultural readjustment. We seem to every couple of years readjust the sugar industry and never get any change. So, I think we need to have people that know more about that than I do, examine just what the various strategies that governments have used, both in agriculture and in some of the forestry's where they seem to have worked through some of these issues with some forestry communities over the last 10 or 15 years as well.They're always painful, they're always going to cause difficulty in those communities, but we need to find a smarter way of doing it to let those people get off with dignity. Many of them are getting older and are looking at ways of retiring, so there are opportunities to help them with those transitions.TONY EASTLEY: Professor Peter Cullen ending that report from Rachel Carbonell.
