What recovery should look like

Clive Bibby

Murray Robertson's well-researched and informative front-page story on Thursday setting out the parameters for a discussion on the recovery is a welcome contribution to the conversations with Government that will inevitably follow.

However, on its own, it will not be enough in support of our well-qualified Federated Farmers leaders (Toby Williams and Co) who will once again battle on our behalf against the Ministers who have responsibility for the portfolios that will feature in future cabinet discussions on this region's desperate position.

It is worth reflecting on recent discussions with these same ministers regarding the Government's plans to selectively tax our industry in response to our livestock GHG emissions.

Not only were we exposed to a bunch of ideologues driven by a commitment to the IPCC's climate-change mantra but we also got an indication of how non-negotiable the government's position on a number of other issues has become.

Unfortunately, it doesn't bode well for our representatives' ability to gain a fair hearing when they sit down with the ministers who control the money we need to fund our recovery from Cyclone Hale.

But, ironically, and being an eternal optimist, there is some reason why we could expect things to be different this time.

I would like to think that one of our ace cards is in the form of our resident cabinet minister, the Hon. Kiri Allan, who has shown a refreshing willingness to go in to bat on our behalf when she feels she occupies the moral and fact-supported high ground.

Having viewed the damage first hand with visits to the most devastated areas, Kiri will no doubt be able to make her own personal representations to cabinet.

That should help a lot.

But the key to achieving a cabinet response that provides meaningful types of financial and physical support will be based on our team (presumably including Kiri) being able to persuade cabinet that the funds (mainly cash grants) are urgently and justifiably needed.

Based on precedents that have already been set (ironically by two previous Labour governments) during previous times of national crisis, it is reasonable to expect a relatively similar type of rescue package being offered when the talking is over.

I hope that cabinet will match their predecessors' enlightened thinking when deciding how best to help our recovery.

Having survived both Cyclone Bola (which in comparative terms was much more destructive than Cyclone Hale) and the Covid pandemic, l regard myself as someone who can offer a bit of advice on what worked and what won't when trying to restore the region to something approaching its pre-cyclone productive capacity.

Unsurprisingly, the do's are the things that proved successful in the recoveries after Cyclone Bola and the Covid-19 lockdown.

In both cases the following ingredients were crucial to the success of the recovery packages:

1) Governments set up a system that allowed access to government cash grants that would help pay for contractors who are best able to fix infrastructure, (in this case, fences, dams, tracks etc) and also the replacement of capital livestock and the reimbursement for crop losses.

2) It is also important to recognise all forms of need. Infrastructure repairs is only one of them although the most common.

In some cases the individual farmer may require help that only qualified medical practitioners can provide. Crises like these have a habit of being the breaking point for individual mental wellbeing. Unfortunately, money can't do much about these real issues but governments can make it easier for patients to get access to that type of help if they require it.

3) Governments can persuade banks to be compassionate when dealing with clients who may need an extension of seasonal overdraft facilities or more acceptable mortgage repayment terms.

Finally, we can all help by giving our local support to those farmers and their supportive communities who really do need a change of scenery — mainly in a humanitarian sense.

They need to feel they are valued members of our regional community — not the self-serving leeches that some people have portrayed them as.

“Let's do it!”