Member for New England and Special Envoy for Drought Assistance and Recovery, Barnaby Joyce, was on hand when Coordinator-General for Drought, Major General Stephen Day, visited Armidale on Friday morning to meet with farmers and other stakeholders.
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Mr Joyce thought he had a significant future part to play.
“I have a role to give some guidance and more structure to the policies that Major General Stephen Day comes forward with, and to assist him as best I can,” Mr Joyce said.
I can do that because I was the Agricultural Minister of the nation for over four years.
- Barnaby Joyce
“So, I’ve got a pretty good baseline understanding of how agriculture works and I still am a farmer.
“I really want to drive this agenda, so we can go back to the people and deliver most of the ideas they’ve given to us.”
Mr Joyce said he knew there would never be a perfect fit for everyone, but he thought government needed to deliver economic security for towns. It also needed to deliver a sense that the community was with our primary producers, and want to get them back on their feet when the drought was over.
Mr Joyce described the drought as a national disaster, and said he never prescribed to the theory that it was necessary for someone to go broke because of drought.
“I think you should do your very best to assist people all the way through,” he said.
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“What I can say is, if things are very, very tough, and you’ve got the right financial advice that’s provided to you to help you make your own decision about whether you’ve got a long term future on the land.
“That’s why I’ve said as one of the key items of this drought policy, I think it’s fair enough to look back and ask, ‘In the last 10 years, have you made a profit?’ Because if someone hasn’t made a profit in the last 10 years the problem is probably not the drought.”
