{"id":165056,"date":"2025-07-04T08:31:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T22:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/?p=165056"},"modified":"2025-07-04T08:31:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T22:31:52","slug":"new-drought-support-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/news\/new-drought-support-package\/","title":{"rendered":"New drought support package announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE Victorian government has announced a new $75 million suite of drought support measures, bringing the total support package to $144 million.<\/p>\n

The measures, revealed earlier today (Friday, July 4), include $35.8 million to help farming households in Victoria’s south west manage the pressures they are facing due to prolonged drought.<\/p>\n

The Primary Producer Support Payments will provide eligible farmers with the equivalent of a 40 per cent reduction on their property rates.<\/p>\n

This will apply in 12 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in south-west Victoria, including Surf Coast Shire, City of Greater Geelong and Colac Otway Shire. Local councils will distribute the payments.<\/p>\n

To reduce the impact on household budgets, the Country Women\u2019s Association is receiving $2 million to deliver household payments of up to $1,000 to struggling families in eligible south-west LGAs.<\/p>\n

There will be $5.9 million to continue critical technical decision-making support, mental health services, timely farm debt mediation and engagement activities for another 12 months.<\/p>\n

A $6.3 million fee and duty relief package will free up cash for farmers in need to spend on other parts of their business or put into the household budget.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Victoria will work with the livestock biosecurity compensation fund advisory committees, Dairy Food Safety Victoria and PrimeSafe to explore opportunities to waive biosecurity duties and regulatory fees and charges.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Victoria will waive indexation on its 2025-26 biosecurity fees and charges and provide
\ntargeted fee relief to assist farmers experiencing cashflow challenges.<\/p>\n

There are also several initiatives to improve access to water across Victoria, including $15 million towards extending the East Grampians Rural Pipeline, $3 million to expand Victoria\u2019s Emergency Supply Point network and install new access points or upgrade existing ones, and $2.5 million to leverage existing groundwater bores to access water for domestic and stock usage in drought-affected areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been listening to farmers and communities who are doing it tough \u2013 this support delivers real help, right now,\u201d Premier Jacinta Allan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just about dollars \u2013 it\u2019s about backing the people who feed our state and the regional communities that keep our state strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to the members of the Taskforce \u2013 Victorians from different communities, backgrounds and political parties who came together to deliver real relief for farming communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

To view the full range of financial, technical and wellbeing support available to drought-affected farmers, head to agriculture.vic.gov.au\/drought<\/a> or phone 136 186.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE Victorian government has announced a new $75 million suite of drought support measures, bringing the total support package to $144 million. The measures, revealed earlier today (Friday, July 4), include $35.8 million to help farming households in Victoria’s south west manage the pressures they are facing due to prolonged drought. The Primary Producer Support […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":165057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-165056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew drought support package announced - Surf Coast Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New $75 million Victorian drought support package announced for farmers in south-west Victoria, including funds for financial aid, mental health services and water.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/news\/new-drought-support-package\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New drought support package announced - 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