Page Content
Farm Help Mid-Term Review - July 2006
The Farm Help program and the Agriculture Advancing Australia (AAA) package have concluded. Farmers who entered the program prior to the closing date will not be disadvantaged and will still receive agreed assistance.
From 30 June 2008 no new applications for farm help income support will be accepted. Payments will cease after 30 June 2009. The Farm Help Advice and Training Scheme and the Farm Help Re-establishment Grant Scheme are also concluding. The deadline to use advice and training vouchers and claiming a re-establishment grant is 30 April 2009.
The Australian Government's AAA Farm Help program provides short-term financial assistance to farm families who are experiencing financial hardship and who cannot borrow further against their assets while they take action to improve their long-term financial situation by improving the financial performance of their farm enterprise, finding alternative sources of income or re-establishing themselves outside farming.
The Farm Help Mid-Term Review was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of Farm Help in meeting its objectives. The review is a component of the program’s monitoring and evaluation framework under which an evaluation of the program is conducted mid-way through its four year term.
The Farm Help Mid-Term Review was utilised as one input into the development of the next version of the Australian Government’s Agriculture Advancing Australia Policy Package.
Executive Summary of the Review 
PDF [140kb]
Rural Adjustment: Managing Change Publication
The original Agriculture Advancing Australia (AAA) package was launched in September 1997 with funding of $525m, following more than a year of review of rural policy, and wide-ranging consultation including the 1996 National Rural Finance Summit. A formal part of this review process was the McColl report, Rural Adjustment: Managing Change.
AAA marked an important new direction in the way the Australian Government provided support to rural industries, moving from the subsidy mechanisms of the Rural Adjustment Scheme towards capacity building and self-reliance. As well as building the sector’s capacity to grow and respond to change, the AAA package also offers incentives and support for adjustment across the industry. The AAA package also provides assistance for farm families in financial difficulty targeted at achieving a greater level of efficiency.
Executive Summary of the Report PDF [78kb]
Rural Adjustment: Managing Change report PDF [1.79mb]
