Aboriginal Farming Systems Will not save us from the next drought

As Western Australian farmers largely dodge what started off looking like a drought year, it's time to review the government’s approach to drought and the need for a properly funded Farm Water Supply Scheme (FWSS).

The FWSS was established in the 1940s to support on-farm water infrastructure development in WA’s farming regions. It provided essential resources like dams, tanks, and catchment systems, enabling farms to flourish in areas with irregular rainfall. The program helped transform the Wheatbelt into a productive farming region by offering grants and technical support to farmers. Importantly, the government also played the role of the supplier of last resort, stepping in during droughts to provide emergency water supplies.

However, in recent years, the scheme has disappeared—at least in WA. The last round was four years ago in 2020, offered by the Morrison federal government, subject to matching funds from the state government. Of course, the WA State Government refused to participate, as then-Minister Alannah MacTiernan was more interested in funding regeneration schemes than in schemes that filled tanks with life-giving water.

Since then, the new Minister has completely ignored farmers who suffered drought in the northern Wheatbelt last year, yet rushed to hand out $8 million in cash, mostly to hobby farmers in her electorate, when it didn’t rain over last summer. (This obviously has nothing to do with it being the lead up to an election.)

As it stands, it seems we now have a government that has rebooted the old drought policy last seen in the 1990s. If the rains don’t come, farmers can expect a cheque in the mail—subject to the Minister living in their electorate.

This highlights a broader issue: the state’s drought policy seems reactionary and inconsistent. Short-term cash injections are useful in the immediate aftermath of droughts, but without a long-term policy framework, these efforts offer little more than temporary relief.

As election season approaches, one can only wonder whether drought policy will make its way into the platforms of the opposition parties. We do have the National Drought Hub, which was the federal government’s belated response to the last big eastern states drought, where $5 billion was put into a trust fund and $100 million dished out for anyone and everyone with a great drought project. Unfortunately, most of the money has disappeared into the pockets of universities.

I challenge any farmer not associated with the Drought Hub to name one project they are aware of. In fact, I challenge the Minister to name one off the top of her head—except, of course, for the predictable Indigenous knowledge projects.

For those not up to speed with any of these particular projects, here’s the summary: the Ecological and Indigenous Values of South-Western Australian Rivers project aims to incorporate Indigenous knowledge and values into the water management of south-western Australian rivers. It seeks to address the ecological and Indigenous water needs of rivers affected by drought and climate change. Or there is the Transformative Aboriginal Agricultural Methods to teach us about how to survive a drought using indigenous farming methods.

I’m sure both these projects will be enthusiastically welcomed by the farmers whose dams are dry in the South West of the state. I rest my case that the Drought Hub bucket is empty of credibility when it keeps handing out cash to progressive causes which would not pass the pub test in a drought district – I challenge them to put the next round of projects out to growers for them to vote on.

What the state needs is a comprehensive drought policy, not one dictated by short-term electoral gains or captured by bleeding hearts and academics. A solid framework for drought management should address the needs of all farming regions, not just those politically advantageous to the government of the day.

Let me give the government and opposition parties some ideas. Historically, the state has served as the supplier of last resort during times of drought. However, emergency water deliveries are expensive and unsustainable. The government’s long-term responsibility should be to ensure that farms are intensified to have the infrastructure to not literally tap into the limited water available in water corps pipes, reducing their reliance on emergency interventions.

A key element of this strategy must be the Farm Water Supply Scheme. By offering even a 25% subsidy for farmers to invest big on water storage systems, be it desalination, bores or 20,000m dams and 10ha catchments the state can reduce the financial and logistical burden of upgrading an aging $6 billion dollar country scheme water network of 6,000 km of pipelines, which is increasingly struggling to be fit for purpose.

To address the ongoing challenges posed by drought, every political party should bring to the next election a comprehensive drought policy to fic the confusion the mess the current and former minister has made of the states drought policy.

Let me put forward some suggestions

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• Smart Water Scheme: $20 million to map groundwater supplies across the Wheatbelt and Great Southern.
• Farm Water Supply Scheme: $10 million annually to incentivise farmers with a 25% rebate, directly linked to reducing dependence on the Country Scheme.
• Rural Towns Desalination Fund: $44 million for stand-alone desalination and storage for the 44 Wheatbelt and Great Southern towns, reducing reliance on Water Corp infrastructure.
• State Drought and Emergency Water Policy: A 2050 policy outlining clear boundaries, triggers, and relief measures.
• Strategic Review of Water Corp Infrastructure: A long-term review to assess how changes in farming demands and a drying climate affect rural water needs.
• Review of the State Governments criteria around Federal Drought Fund projects that involve DPIRD that are not directly related to drought.

Water security is essential for the future of Western Australian agriculture. As the state government found in the last Eastern Great Southern extended dry it cost millions to cart water when the states emergency water policy kicks in.

Far better to use public and private capital to get in front of the next drought, rather than hand cash out to hobby farmers in Ministers electorates.

If the current government or opposition parties want to win the support of rural voters, they should include a clear and robust drought policy—backed by genuine investment—in their platforms.