30 September 2025. Shane McCarthy, AgForce General President.
It was good to see drought and more importantly - better drought preparedness - under the national spotlight in the first week of September.
The 2025 National Drought Forum came to Gawler in drought hit SA and hopefully has added to the great body of knowledge we've built over many years to improve support and responsiveness for farmers struggling under the load. That support is also needed for the rural communities which rely on their contribution, and support them through hardship.
Because while it's good to have a national drought forum every couple of years, we need to actually put into action the recommendations that emerge from them. Producers want to see action - and indeed more action after the planning.
We need to see tangible outcomes from these meetings, so they're not just a talk-fest.
Good ideas do come out of these forums. It's great to get industry leaders in a room representing their producers to talk about what's working and what's not and make plans for change.
There also needs to be an understanding that what works in one part of the country does not necessarily work in another. Queensland is a large state and what works even in one part of Queensland doesn't necessarily transfer to another part . So we need to be flexible and have fit for area plans.
The forum did discuss the need for area specific solutions, and for that they should be commended. We must make support recovery specific to locations.
Just a better understanding of what producers are going through is a good start. While Queensland isn't in the worst of the country's drought by any means at the moment, now is definitely the time to plan for future events.
But that's what happens. If farming was easy, everybody'd do it.
It's always best to plan for drought before the drought happens. That is the time to do it, not in the midst of the crisis.
The word resilient gets used a lot. I'd much prefer to hear the word profitable when it comes to farmers, because profitable farmers have much more capacity to be resilient. While it's good to talk about the resilience of farmers, we need to remember that profitable farmers become resilient farmers.
Be assured that farmers voices were heard though AgForce at the forum, to ensure there are practical solutions and actions for farmers in a time of need.
This is where AgForce's long game advocacy comes in. While it was good to have both the Federal Minister for Agriculture, the Federal Assistant Agriculture Minister, and the Queensland Primary Industries Minister at the forum, we will be continuing ongoing talks with all of them to ensure that action does happen.
