Drought Update

Discussions on drought relief will be the topic of a meeting between the Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGuaran and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Rory McEwen in Adelaide on 9 November. Minister McEwen says work has already started on a number of Exceptional Circumstances (EC) applications from South Australia and he is interested in hearing from Minister McGuaran about assurances given last month that he'll give sympathetic consideration to any new EC applications from this State. Senior State Government representatives in each of the regions are convening meetings with local government, Natural Resource Management Boards, Regional Development Boards, SA Farmer's Federation and other industry and community groups to initiate applications.