13 February 2009
DAFF09/81T

Victoria bushfire devastation and Queensland floods, Tony Burke appeals to consumers for their support.

G'day, it's Tony Burke, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. As I speak, Victoria is still burning. Loved ones are still missing and relief crews continue to help distressed survivors.

There will be a time when farmers fully consider the costs to their businesses. But for now, the focus is on the terrible human tragedy. It’s hard to focus on counting your lost stock while the nation is counting lost friends.

I will continue talking to the Victorian Government, the Victorian Farmers Federation, local members of Parliament and others about the relief and recovery effort. Slowly, we will piece together the full extent of damage to local farming and forestry industries.

Stock losses have been significant, but not as dire as we expected. At the same time, extraordinary amounts of fodder have gone up in flames. Permanent plantings have been severely damaged and many dairies are unusable.

Farmers who have invested significant money in better water management and on-farm irrigation systems have found that if those systems were concrete, they have cracked and if they were polypipe, they have melted.

Timber mills have been lost. It looks like around 100,000 hectares of native forest is no longer available for production. Up to 30,000 hectares of plantation forests have also gone.

It’s not surprising that farmers across Australia are reaching out to help.

On the ground in Victoria, dairy farmers are letting neighbours who have lost equipment to use their facilities so their cows are kept in production. Farmers in other states – particularly NSW, South Australia and Tasmania – have donated fodder and offered other support through the VFF, with transport costs then supported by the Victorian Government.

The VFF number for donations of fodder is 1300 882 833.

And of course, up north in Queensland, farmers have also suffered devastating losses of stock and crops from the floods. We know that there has been significant damage to sugar cane crops, as well as bananas, paw-paw, lychees, mangoes and more.

So, I am making an appeal to every consumer, to keep this in mind when you are doing your shopping in the coming weeks. We can be a bit fussy about the tiniest blemishes on fruit and vegies, even though the food may taste just as good. The terrible conditions in Victoria and the floods in Queensland mean there will be more produce than usual with blemishes on your supermarket shelves. For example, as Woolworths is telling shoppers - the bananas from Queensland might not be the same bright yellow you’re used to. But much of this produce will still taste as good.

So to support our consumers, let’s be a bit more tolerant than usual. With our support, retailers can continue to buy the produce. And farmers who are facing extraordinary difficulties can do the best they can with the produce they have. Together, we can do little things that will make a big difference to our farmers in tough times.

Thanks.