A new Australian Government drought plan

The first round of consultation on the new Australian Government drought plan is closed. A second round will occur in 2024.

How you had your say

We asked for feedback on how to improve the next drought plan to support farmers and farming communities across the drought cycle . Your input informed the review of the current plan and our work on a new one. The review made 18 recommendations responding to stakeholder feedback:

1. The government publish a new dedicated Drought Plan, to act as a guiding document for drought policy and programs at the Australian Government level.
2. The new plan show how the government is delivering on its commitments under the National Drought Agreement.
3. The new plan acknowledge the diverse impacts of drought on a wider range of cohorts. This includes farmers, regional communities, families, young people, women, community organisations, First Nations peoples, and businesses and workers throughout the agricultural supply chain and across agriculture dependent regions.
4. While acknowledging the impacts of drought are felt widely, the new plan should maintain the current focus on drought’s impacts on farmers, farming families and farming communities.
5. The new plan be written in plain English and make use of graphics to help convey information in an engaging way.
6. The new plan state the government’s drought policy and explain what it means in practice across the drought cycle.
7. The new plan explain the distinction in government policy between drought and disaster response.
8. The new plan explain, at a high level, links to related policy areas, including but not limited to, climate resilience and adaptation, water, natural resource management and mental health in line with the government’s current agenda.
9. The new plan avoid detailed point-in-time descriptions of assistance programs, and instead describe key streams of support at a high level and provide web links to detailed program information held on appropriate government websites such as Recovery Connect, drought.gov.au or agriculture.gov.au.
10. The new plan give greater weight to the government’s role and activities to promote preparedness, without losing sight of the importance of in-drought response.
11. The department assess the government’s current and potential approach to drought recovery policy and consider how this could be reflected in the new plan.
12. The new plan recognise the roles and contributions of farmers; industry bodies; the Australian, state, territory and local governments; banking and professional service sectors; charities and not-for-profits. This should draw on the draft shared responsibilities framework previously developed with stakeholders, be non-binding and consistent with the National Drought Agreement.
13. The new plan give greater transparency and clarity about how government may intervene with additional drought support, and how decisions about additional support will be made. Consideration should be given to including a public-facing version of the Drought Decision‑making Framework in the new plan.
14. The new plan describe, at a high level, the key types of additional support the government may provide in the event of a drought, and the types of support the government will not provide.
15. The department consider if and how a set of high-level guiding principles for drought support program eligibility can be included in the new plan.
16. The department continue to explore how incident management approaches across government can be applied to drought, and how such arrangements can be explained in the new plan.
17. The new plan include mechanisms on how government and non-government players can improve the sharing of information about drought impacts and responses, taking into account relevant work flowing from the review of the National Drought Agreement.
18. The department explore options for how to assess and report on the effectiveness of drought policy as a whole.

During the review process, we approached people from:

• farm industry bodies
• state, territory and local government
• charities and not-for-profit organisations
• First Nations organisations
• the banking and professional services sectors
• conservation groups
• Drought Innovation and Adoption Hubs
• Rural Research and Development Corporations
• Rural Financial Counsellors
• the Australian Government’s Recovery Support Officer network
• unions.

You gave feedback through:

• online meetings
• an online survey
• written submissions.

Who engaged

108 organisations were engaged through the consultation.

Survey

21 responded through our survey or made a submission.

Meetings

70 people met with us to give feedback.

What you said

Most common issues you raised:

• While farmers are often the most impacted by drought, businesses, communities and families across regional Australia feel the impacts too.
• Links between drought policy and other Australian Government policies, especially on climate, natural resource management, and water.
• The Plan needs to be easy to understand and relevant at any stage of the drought cycle.
• The need for government to be transparent and up-front about how and when it will step in with extra support – and what kinds of support may be available at each stage of the drought cycle.
• How drought response can be better coordinated.
• The need to recognise the wider range of players who are involved in drought response.

Read the detailed summary of what we heard.

What happens next

We expect to publish a draft of the new drought plan for public comment in the first half of 2024.

Following this consultation period, we expect to finalise and release the new drought plan in 2024. This will ensure the new drought plan reflects the new National Drought Agreement and new Future Drought Fund Drought Resilience Funding Plan, both due to be finalised in the first half of 2024.