Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor says drought funding into the future must focus on giving farmers greater self reliance, but continue to support those falling through the cracks.

“I think this is the heart of the debate now. One of the things I’ve seen happen in the long drought we’ve had in the past 10 years is that there has been some really positive adaptation by many famers. I know from personal experience most farmers are now much better prepared for drought than they were many years ago,” Mr Taylor said.

“The core policy of the Government has to be in helping farmers to be self reliant because most farmers want to be self reliant, desperately want to be self reliant and very few farmers like going to the government for help. So that has to be the core of our policy. But there will always be people who slip through the net and haven’t been able to adapt and we have to be sensitive to that. The new Farm Household Allowance coming into effect from 1 July 2014 has to be able to deal with farmers who may be asset rich and income poor, to ensure they’re not in situations of undue distress.

“By encouraging people to self reliance, that doesn’t mean just letting people go. It means to help them understand how to put themselves in a position to get through. That always has to be our starting point and it’s what most farmers want anyway. It’s a pretty lonely job if you’re an owner/operator with no employees - and many farmers are. The support has to be there.

“We want our farmers in a position where they don’t have to sell off their breeding stock, where they have the financial capacity and the infrastructure to feed stock if they have to, and I’m very keen that we have all the right policies in place to make sure people are in that position. It’ll continue to be a live debate in the coming months,” he said.