Thursday 20 October 2016
Help for dairy farmers struggling through the industry downturn is overdue Shadow Minister for Agriculture Peter Walsh said.
“Daniel Andrews has announced grants that he said would extend assistance to our dairy farmers but there are 4200 dairy farms in Victoria and his program will only extend to 360 applicants ” Mr Walsh said.
“The fixed infrastructure grants are also only offered on condition of a matching dollar-for-dollar contribution from farmers which is going to be tough for a lot of businesses.
“Farmers with cash flow can try their luck but farmers in the red who don’t have funds to match will miss out.
“Dairy farmers have been struggling to pay bills calling for direct State Government relief for months.
“Instead of rebates on property rates and water charges Daniel Andrews’ has simply offered scraps off the table.
“Daniel Andrews is sitting on a huge surplus after the $9.7 billion sale of the Port of Melbourne but he has a real problem spending it in Regional Victoria.”
