A new Australian Government drought plan

OFFICIAL

Level 2, Galkangu
Lyttleton Terrace
Bendigo VIC 3550

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry
Australian Government

Drought Plan Submission

Re: https://haveyoursay.agriculture.gov.au/new-australian-government-drought-plan

The Loddon Mallee Regional Development Australia Committee (LMRDA) is pleased to present feedback, in Attachment 1, on the Australian Government’s Draft Drought Plan.

The Loddon Mallee region is a cornerstone of Australian agriculture. The region's agricultural output is over $2 billion in value, representing 17% of Victoria's total agricultural production. The region’s strategic location, coupled with modern irrigation infrastructure, supports a diverse range of crops and livestock, reinforcing its status as a food bowl of national importance.

Agriculture is a cornerstone of the Loddon Mallee economy, contributing to employment and regional prosperity through sectors like horticulture, viticulture, and livestock. Drought planning is crucial in this context, as it focuses on understanding the unique vulnerabilities of the area.

The LMRDA encourages the Australian Government to ensure the Drought Plan supports pragmatic responses and adaptive measures that enable the region to better manage the risks associated with climate variability and secure the sustainability of its agricultural sector.

Drought planning must reflect place-based impacts to ensure that strategies are tailored to the unique environmental, economic, and social characteristics of each area. This localised approach enables more effective mitigation, helping communities to adapt and become resilient to the specific challenges they face. Recognising the diverse needs and resources of different regions is crucial for the sustainability and efficacy of drought response efforts.

There are several questions for consideration including emphasising the long-term nature of the issues, importance in regional ownership and governance in the space, ongoing capacity-building especially at the regional and local level between all three levels of Government and appropriate policy implementation. These policies should support drought resilience without being too narrow in focus, link to other broader policies that may impact upon the implementation of longer-term drought resilience, consideration of other policy choices such as renewable energy infrastructure solutions or water security.

OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL

Level 2, Galkangu
Lyttleton Terrace
Bendigo VIC 3550

We welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss this submission if required.

Yours sincerely

Leonie Burrows
Chair, Loddon Mallee RDA Committee

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OFFICIAL

Level 2, Galkangu
Lyttleton Terrace
Bendigo VIC 3550

ATTACHMENT 1: RESPONSE FROM LODDON MALLEE RDA, SEPTEMBER 2024

Addressing key questions

Q1 - Is the Australian Government's approach to drought across the drought cycle clear in the draft plan?
The approach to drought across the cycle is clear and emphasises building resilience to manage climate change and seasonal conditions.

The LMRDA encourages consideration to the rate of change experienced by agriculture communities and their ability to adopt and implement new practices. This is pertinent given the increased occurrence and intensity with which drought is occurring in our rural and regional landscapes.

Q2 - Is the draft plan clear as to why the Australian Government's drought policy and response is different to that for natural disasters?
Yes, it is clear regarding the difference between drought and natural disasters. It is also pleasing to see clear alignment with the State through the agreement on this direction. This distinction is well understood within agricultural communities, consideration should be given to when the length and scale of drought events surpasses what can reasonably be managed. This requires a clear understanding of regional and placed based circumstances including community resilience, agriculture dependency and the occurrence and overlapping impacts for drought with natural disasters or disruptions to value chains in agriculture and food systems such as disease.

Q3 - Does Pillar 1 (Evidence based decision-making) provide greater clarity about when, why, how and what the government will consider when determining its response to drought?
Place-based evidence-based decision making should be given consideration. To this end, consideration should be given to better understanding economic situation analysis and sectoral pressures outside seasonal conditions. In this context the LMRDA would consider that inclusion of the following areas for evidence base could be helpful to support local longer-term adaptation and resilience planning adding value to the drought plan at a regional level. This could include but is not limited to the following areas / topics:
• Clear articulation of the agricultural changes occurring in this region (as described)
• Agrifood dependence of communities (to the broader economic base – determining level of
impact and relatedness of stressors to the economic output of impacted region)
• Economic Diversity (what other areas can support the economy)
• Business and Value chain impacts (input or upstream and downstream impact
understanding from farm gate)
• Adaptive capacity (differential impact on secondary industries and vulnerability of a region
to drought conditions)
• Labor Force Impacts (immediate and longer-term impacts in downturns - can areas bounce
back?)

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OFFICIAL

Level 2, Galkangu
Lyttleton Terrace
Bendigo VIC 3550

• Social Implications (better articulating and understanding the resilience of smaller towns
and communities to adjust and bounce back).

Q4 - Does Pillar 2 (Strategic drought support) provide greater clarity about how the Australian
Government will respond across the drought cycle, including what support it will not provide?
Yes, noting that the increased emphasis on building resilience to better support communities requires a greater burden of accountability on programs such as the Future Drought Fund to provide evidence of supporting change at the level of individual impact, as well as supporting innovation in farming systems. The involvement of farmers and rural communities is critical in ensuring areas of investment have strong support and reflect the areas of greatest need.

Specific allocation of resources to create this long-term certainty for response and recovery be improved through the Drought hubs and in our context the Drought Resilience Plans.

Q5 - Have you identified any gaps in how we have responded to any of the review recommendation in the draft plan?
LMRDA would like the Australian Government to consider how to establish a clear engagement framework that better integrates the various place based (local, regional, State and
Commonwealth) groups and how they interact to ensure improved communication and better alignment between commonwealth programs and local responses (using Local, State and regional
‘Agents’).

It may be possible to consider how the local Drought Resilience plan influences the broader
National plan. There are gaps in how to consider the complexity of longer-term resilience planning for regions especially in relation to working with key industries in adapting the dry seasonal conditions. This complexity is exacerbated by the broader climate policy implementation and other large scale energy investments.

LMRDA would like to see a longer-term commitment to collaborative action (at place) to ensure the region can build more resilient systems and be more adaptive to change. This requires longer-term thinking on transition in some areas with the need to better understand the competing nature of other policy decisions for example, industry policy and/or climate policy implications. This is particularly evident in our region through the policy direction decisions currently underway to implement the Murray Darling Basin Plan where it is likely the water buyback will create less resilient irrigation communities and towns across our Victorian northern irrigation region.

The need to align with Local Government and all levels of government could be clearer. One of the largest gaps is how to work with Local Government on responses and future planning.

Q6 - Do you have any comments on the work underway for us to consider as we progress it?
Please consider the Victorian drought hub’s purpose and alignment with Drought Resilience planning in context of this plan. It is critical that local groups, through the drought hubs (groups such as like Birchip Cropping Group, Mallee Sustainable Farming etc), play a key ongoing role in

OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL

Level 2, Galkangu
Lyttleton Terrace
Bendigo VIC 3550 resilience planning and in acute times are key references for local communities as trusted advisors. This could be articulated through an approved Drought Resilience plan at a regional level
(local) and be aligned on a governance front. How can the Plan address local governance and alignment gaps across governments and local communities?

There is also the need to acknowledge the complex and long-term nature of drought resilience, emphasising the need for regional ownership and capacity building at the local level, are there a range of specific examples that can be provided as case studies to the plan to demonstrate what can be done, has been done and is being done now, at farm/local level and other scales.

There are a range of interlinkages between various resilience measures, such as social capital and economic diversification, and their importance in drought resilience. Is there a way to articulate this in the plan more clearly (again case studies might work)?

With the significant changes occurring in our region on climate energy and water-related matters, we would like to see how the integration of renewable energy infrastructure solutions like pumped hydro into water security strategies fit within the thinking of the plan – especially if consumptive water becomes likely scarcer for agricultural purposes and renewable energy generation assets are deployed as part of the renewable energy zone implementation. There is also an opportunity as the intersection of community benefits to consider agglomeration of funding and other benefits models to utilise this funding to support better and more sustainable long-term planning – a focus such as outlined in the Goulburn Murray Resilience Strategy (which has a key taskforce) or efforts in a Tri–
State Cross-Border work in the Mallee and beyond.

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