It's time we talk about disaster policy

BY DAN GALLIGAN,
CEO, CANEGROWERS

No one in the cane industry needs to be reminded of the importance of managing, surviving and recovering from natural disasters.

Undoubtedly here in Queensland we could be considered world leaders in the realm of responding to natural disasters. From droughts, floods, fires and cyclones—we literally get it all. We have disasters that can be short lived, intense and devastating like cyclones and fires to the insidious and souldestroying nature of droughts that can last for years.

Many farmers have become experts in getting their businesses back up and running after the impact of such disasters.

The assistance that farmers rely upon can come from multiple sources such as commercial insurance or drawing down on their own financial resources, industry support and government disaster assistance.

Each one of these elements is needed to build resilience for a farming business. All areas, from personal resources, commercial insurance and public policy require scrutiny and revision to ensure it is fit for purpose.

In relation to public disaster assistance policy, Queensland is a national, if not world, leader. An unfortunate recognition of the decades of experience that the state has had in responding to such events.

This has created a cohort of experts in this field and institutional arrangements, particularly around the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, that has been specifically mandated to give a focus to response and resilience in relation to natural disasters.

While we assess and recover from yet another cyclone in Queensland it is very clear that it is time for the State and Commonwealth Governments to sit down with industry, and review the policy and programs that are focused on helping primary producers to recover from and become more resilient to natural disasters.

A range of persistent policy inconsistencies arise.

These include the inability for assistance authorities to deal with primary producers who receive off farm income. Even when that income comes from an associated business such as harvesting contracting that is in fact supporting and reliant on farming.

So too, when we look at the issues of assistance that is provided to repair land but not replant crops, which does not achieve the objective of getting the business up and running, and when it comes to the loss of plant cane, it leaves the grower well behind for a number of years.

There are also gaps in the focus of response.

The coordinated management of riparian land repair, catchment drains, and hill slopes is a gap that often receives attention too late in the process and in not enough time to ensure systems are operating effectively before the next disaster hits.

Finally, it is time we saw sustained funding to underpin the coordination and facilitation of disaster assistance across the state. We all want assistance resources to go to the most needed locations as quickly as possible.

But instead of rapidly trying to build resources after a disaster we should use a relatively small amount of money to have people permanently in the regions, trained and skilled in assisting primary producers to assess damage, access assistance and rebuild their businesses.

This is an expert role, a task that is called upon every year in Queensland and it is for this reason that not only should our policy be world leading but so too should our on-ground resources.