Just one in seven farmers can easily access mental health support, new data presented at this morning's NFF-Suicide Prevention Australia (SPA) Parliamentary Breakfast reveals - even as psychological distress and exposure to natural disasters climb sharply across the sector.
The figures, drawn from the University of Canberra's Regional Wellbeing Survey and presented by Professor Jacki Schirmer at Parliament House, paint a stark picture of a sector under mounting pressure with nowhere near enough support to meet it.
A system that isn't there when farmers need it
Only 14.7 per cent of regional farmers reported good access to mental health services in 2025, compared with 36.6 per cent of Australians overall - less than half the rate of the general population, despite farmers facing significantly higher risk. Access to even basic health services, such as GPs, is also lower for farmers (42.5 per cent) than for the broader population (63.5 per cent).
Researchers warn that when farmers do reach out, help is too often not there, and that mental health issues escalate as a result of delays in support, with available services frequently not tailored to the unique needs of farming communities.
A decade of rising distress
The data shows a marked rise in psychological distress among Australian farmers over the past decade. Before 2020, an average of 25 per cent of farmers reported moderate-to-high psychological distress. Between 2020 and 2025, that average rose to 35 per cent. Over the same period, the proportion of farmers reporting unhealthily low wellbeing - a key indicator of mental health risk - climbed from a 15 per cent average (2015-2020) to 24 per cent (2024-2025), an increase of two-thirds.
Compounding disasters are driving the decline
Sixty per cent of Australian farmers have been impacted by two or more major natural hazard events - including drought, flood, bushfire, storm and heatwave - in the past five years. The data shows a clear and consistent relationship between hazard exposure and wellbeing: low wellbeing rises from 14.6 per cent among farmers impacted by one natural hazard to 33.5 per cent among those impacted by four or five.
Cost pressures adding to the strain
These pressures are compounded by sustained cost increases across the sector. Between 2021 and 2025, 71.5 per cent of farms were impacted by rising input prices such as fertiliser, spray and seed, and 64.1 per cent by rising transport costs - and this is before accounting for the impact of the 2026 fuel and fertiliser crisis, suggesting the true current burden on farm businesses is likely even higher.
Comments attributable to Mike Guerin, CEO, National Farmers' Federation:
"What key health administrators and decision-makers have heard this morning are not abstract statistics. They are people. They are families. They are communities that are quietly bearing a weight that should not be theirs to carry alone.
"What we've clearly and consistently heard from farmers and regional practitioners at the coalface is we need more coordination, not more individual programs operating in isolation.
"What is needed is a national approach, owned by the whole sector, backed by the evidence, and funded to deliver at the scale the problem demands. That is why we are asking the Federal Government to commit $50 million over five years. Not as a gesture, but as an investment.
"Agriculture feeds this nation. The people who do that work deserve a system that looks after them in return."
Comments attributable to Nieves Murray, CEO, Suicide Prevention Australia:
"Australia's farming communities are experiencing high and sustained levels of distress, with serious impacts on mental health and suicide. This is both urgent and, too often, neglected. The evidence is clear: coordinated national action is needed.
"On average, one farmer dies by suicide every ten days. This is up to twice the rate of the broader working population. Behind each of those statistics is a family changed forever, a seat left empty at the dinner table, and a community left to carry the weight of that loss.
"Access to support should not depend on where you live, yet for many in rural and remote Australia that remains the reality. The distance between crisis and care is often vast. Reaching help can mean hours of travel, time away from the farm, and limited access to local or regional specialists. Geography should never determine how quickly someone can get the help they need.
"Suicide Prevention is complex, shaped by a range of overlapping factors. It requires sustained, whole-of-government effort. Regional communities face heightened risk and need a response designed with that reality in mind. We're proud to be collaborating across sectors, and now we want to collaborate across government, so we can address the full range of drivers and make real progress in preventing suicide in farming communities."
