Reducing drought relief red tape Anderson's first mission as minister

The Tamworth MP was recently named Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, and one of his main responsibilities is "reducing red tape".

He said his electorate was "right at the forefront" of the drought and its impacts.

"My office deals with farmers who are drought affected nearly every day," Mr Anderson said.

"People say 'I haven't got time to fill out 15 pages to get some assistance'.

"We heard it quite a lot, some of the forms and the way people access assistance is cumbersome, clunky and time consuming."

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Mr Anderson said he'd already started working on making it easier for farmers to get drought assistance.

"Straight away, I brought it up with the Premier, and the Premier agreed," Mr Anderson said.

"My first discussion paper will be in Cabinet next Monday.

"I want to make sure our communities benefit from everything I do at a ministerial levels."

Accountant Wyn Rae has been working with drought-relief charity Doing It For Our Farmers, helping people wade their way through the convoluted system

She said the drought assistance forms were often so complicated, farmers put them in the "too-hard basket".

"People coming to us for help are totally defeated," Ms Rae said.

"The forms ask the same question five different ways, and it seems like it's trying to trip people up with their answers.

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"Farmers are good at what they do - raising cattle and growing crops. They've got better things to do than to sit there and mull their way through questions, only to lose their internet connect and with it all their information.

"If Kevin can do anything to simplify the process for farmers, that would be fantastic."

Loomberah grazier Kevin Tongue echoed Ms Rae's comments.

"It's too complicated, you need a bloody masters degree in economics to understand it," Mr Tongue said.

"There's a lot of assistance grants available to people, but they just can't get access to them.

"Let's hope they can get it streamlined and make it easier to apply for."