NORTH EAST AND GOULBURN MURRAY
Part of the Farmer Group Rural Newspapers Covering Victoria Published since 1984
JANUARY, 2017
37 Rowan Street, Wangaratta 3677
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PAGES 13-22
PAGE 12
PAGE 8
Dairy help delays put families to the wall By JAMIE KRONBORG
LAST HARVEST: Eldorado Orchards has been taken over by Jessee Schulz Dahlenburg and partner Stefan Heintjes. The couple have made some significant changes to the business. See full story page 3. PHOTO: Vanessa Burgess
TWO of Australia’s senior bureaucrats have come face to face with North East dairy farmers forced to the breadline by dramatic milk supply price cuts earlier this year. Commonwealth Agriculture and Water Resources Department first assistant secretary Greg Williamson and Human Services Department general manager Melissa Ryan were challenged at a ‘dairy round table’ meeting in Tangambalanga last month to use their significant powers – and immediately – to relieve affected farmers of fear and worry about a cash flow crisis besetting their enterprises and communities. Mr Williamson, who heads his department’s farm support division, and Ms Ryan, who leads her department’s older Australians’ division which includes programs defined as rural, heard harrowing stories from some of the region’s farmers about the impact of a striking, near-overnight change in their business fortunes last autumn.
Two major processors – Murray Goulburn Co-operative and Fonterra – one after the other slashed contracted milk product supply prices and moved to apply the cuts retrospectively. The State Government responded on May 23 to provide financial support for affected Victorian farmers, followed two days later by a decision of the Federal Government to offer a $579 million package of concessional loans plus farm household allowances for dairy families suffering cash flow fallout from the processors’ decisions. B u t C a t h y M c G owa n (MHR, Indi) – in whose electorate dairying contributes significantly to agricultural communities and the economy – warned Agriculture Minister and Nationals’ leader Barnaby Joyce early in November that affected families were continuing to suffer frustrating, plus-20 week delays in the delivery of social service support. Continued page 2
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