What can Australians do individually and as a nation to support families affected by drought?

Question

My name is Lee Kernaghan and I am the 2008 Australian of the Year.

As well as being a musician, I am a keen supporter of country communities across Australia and am the official patron of Aussie Helpers, a volunteer-run organisation that was established to help fight poverty and lift the spirits of those severely affected by drought in the outback.

For more information visit http://au.rd.yahoo.com/answers/question/leek/aussiehelpers/SIG=11bf6j2i1/**http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aussiehelpers.org.au%2F

Answer 1

hi Lee, I am a fellow Aussie ,  congrats on your award.It has been a drought for eight years and  it was eight years ago my friend Jane and myself put out a c.d that has radio airplay. . For personal reasons we have done nothing with our music as far as promoting it..sooo I was thinking maybe you could listen to our c,d's and if you like our stuff., maybe we can break the drought  . If you think there is room for us somewhere at one of your concerts perhaps or selling our c.d's with money  going towards the families affected by drought we would love to be involved. I was surprised to see you on yahoo answers  it would be cool to have you hear it, Jane thinks I do nothing but be on Answers, since I found Yahoo a month ago, Love to tell her I am on the job tee hee.Thanks anyway. It is a good thing you do Lee , I do not have the answers but I do like to buy my produce locally  and try to be water wise. feel free to email me. We have just finished a video clip my niece made . thankyou. kathy ;ate edit: we are on..take a peak.

Answer 2

the Drought affects more than just the farmers.  Our town is a big wheat/sheep area in WA and in my parents business most of our customers are farmers, so if they have a bad year so do they. just giving a hand when required and being patient when bill paying time comes around can also help, for lots of people just knowing that you are there for them when they need you is a big help too. Animal Feed/water donations, fund raisers, raffles etc are also a big help

Answer 3

Hi there,

Aussie here, congrats on your award !

Well I agree with all the answers above, and I would like to suggest  tighter water restrictions for the inner city and suburban areas, therefore allowing no restrictions and extra availability for the farmers.

We in the suburbs should learn to regulate our water consumption and realise that our agriculture needs it more than we do.  

I have a neighbour that washes her car every week, and hoses down her brick walls quite often. (weird)

There are many Australians that are still taking advantage of our water and using it to the extreme. What is with them ?

I even see some parents allowing their children to play with the water hose just for fun.

Yes, it happens every where.    

I am not saying we should never wash, however a shower is a priority over a car wash.

If the rest of us have tighter water restrictions then there would be allot more available for the farmers.  

We should try limiting our water to a time limit, having it available only at certain times of the day except for the farmers, and I mean short limits.

Answer 4

I think that city dwellers dont get much chance to few thetir hardships firsthand...some have never met country folk before. I've haerd of an exchange programn where for a day, city and country dwellers sweop places and look at dams and lifestyles...the city kids were amazed and changed their wasteful habits with water and the country kids were pretty amazed when they saw how we city dwellers waste water too. Congrats to you Lee and well done fo trying to raise awareness on a much unpublicised issue in Australia, today.

Answer 5

Why don't  you  speak with the Israels and those who lived in that part of the world?? They are living in the dessert & have water & grow things  and even places in Ameraca that had & still have desert and have people liveng there so why don't you speak with those public servants??. You should not only looking with in to salv the problems bu you should be looking out side as well. That is not a country's thing it's not a Nation thing it's a WORLD thing so start looking out side to help salv

the problem.

Answer 6

This is not going to be a popular answer, but the best way to help them is to let the unrpoductive, environmentally unsustainable farmers go bankrupt and go under. We need to stop pretending that the marginal semi arid landscape of Australia can support wheat and sheep farming on a long term basis.

Stop paying subsidies to keep them in business.

Encourage the use of food and crops that are well adapted to the extremely erractic conditions ie Australian native plants and animals, so that drought is not such a problem any more. Kangaroo meat is much leaner than mutton or beef, more responsive to drought and and much less damaging in terms of soil erosion. Do you realise how much protien is in a single Acacia saligna seed?

The days of trying to adapt the environment to suit our tastes and lifestyles is over. The Australain climate and environment is far too unforgiving and is collapsing from our past farming practices. With 8 ha of arable land in the WA wheatbelt becoming affected by salinity ever hour, do you really think broad acre wheat sheep farms are profitable over a 50 year period? Over 20 years?

I support country communities that are willing to adapt to the conditions around them. The days of fly in / fly out farming are coming people.

Answer 7

Good on you Lee, you make a good Aussie icon

I think that as individuals we should do all we can even if on a small scale., and I mean by small scale doing what each of us can do by saving water, each drop saved saves water for the farmers.  

It would be so good if when it rains in one area tankers could contain the water and travel with it to drought restricted areas.  But this should be Government run. I thought of that one when I saw copious amounts of water gushing down a storm water drain in a very flooded area.  While the poor farmers were being crushed with the thought of loosing there parched farms. ( I think if that water that was being wasted was worth something there would have been swarms of people there to collect it)  I reckon somehow we can support this and get a net work going and this is how water can actually be saved. Because if we only think everything comes down to money, money in the end cant buy water we just don't have!  Give what you can, save what you can and pray the powers that be have the insight to focus on what is right and just for our battling farmers.

lol cant take the country out of the girl!

Answer 8

CONGRATS ON BECOMING AUSSIE OF THE YEAR!!!

-fix leaking taps

-shower with a bucket

-sorry kids, no water play

-buy Australian made products

-keep our dam clean from blue-green algae, if that gets in there nothing can stop the drought

-get more people involved in building the pipes to other dams which also helps control flooding (its crazy - its flooding somewhere and majorly drought effected elsewhere)

Answer 9

Wow, being Australian of the Year must be such a great reward for all your efforts! I give you all my congratulations on your terrific award!

I know most people would emphasis that to help people all we need to is donate money but it's a little bland nowadays. Noone truly understands how it feels to undergo suffering so people usually give money because people ask them to donate money for a good cause. Other people may not donate unsure if their money will even go towards the cause but to fight against poverty or help families who are suffering from drought we should make people aware first.

Having school assemblies and advertising in television, we have to make people aware that these things are happening. People often are oblivious to how much pain people will undergo, hence people have to be informed of such treacherous deeds.

After volunteers should actually go and help and see with their own eyes the conditions in which they live. Then by holding massive fundraisers by hosting a huge camp-out or having a five-day hike through the desert of Australia, we can gain some profit to purchase basic nessessities for these people.

A fifty-thousand miles journey starts with a single step and one person is all that is needed to start a massive charity organisation to help others.

I wish all the best for you and hope people will become more aware what is happening within their country and will try and strive towards a country where all inhabitants will have a chance of equality and where everyone has the chance for a comfortable living.

Answer 10

Gday Lee thank god there are still people like you around fighting for our country and people.I hail from Innisfail and still live here today Cyclone Larry shook us up abit but we still maintained a great spirit and now the community and whole town has come back better then ever.All I can say is others from the cities and who are well off need to back the people and families of the outback.They are our true identity in australia and the outback is a precious resource so we need to back them every step of the way.Come on australia please give and be generous!!

Answer 11

Hey

Your kids go to my school :)

hehe

Edit:

Jees doesnt take much to get a thumbs down

Shakes head- People can be so pointless and rude

Answer 12

bring back john howard and sack the labour government.

Answer 13

well done for receiving a great award. Individually Australians need to be made more aware of the impact of drought so they can help support a government campaign to assist drought. As a nation the Australian government really has to live up to our countries culture and stand up and lend a hand.

Answer 14

Hi Lee, Congrats on your Australian of the Year Award.

I have a lot of viewpoints on this subject as an Australian and I beleive in my own country first. Some of these viewpoints are considered quite harsh to some, racist to many and one sided to the majority. Unfortunately the harsh reality is that we are not looking after our country too well. Yeah, we could blame people, institutions and authorities and we could go on forever to find a viable solution which would help our country, but the damage has already been achieved, and now we are left to pick up the pieces and start over, again!

My opinions about why I feel strongly about the financial situation our country is in because we have resorted to living with money, and paying dearly for it to those who want more. I used to hear stories from my pop about how things were traded, or people just helped just to get a feed, and sometimes for nothing at all. Call it charitable or call it what you will, but I myself have lent a hand many a time and wanted nothing in return but a smile or a happiness which could brighten the aspect of something everyone believes in. I could go on forever about how people don't think outside of the square, and couldn't give a rats bum on helping when people need the help but that doesn't solve anything, all talk no action, so the questions remain, what can we do? Simple as it may seem, what would it take for everyone in this country, financial institutions, authorities, companies, individuals, kids/youth, a combined effort to help out for 1 week every 1-2 months of the year and go to where the help is needed and try our best to get this country back on its feet. I'm somewhat ashamed that there are people we have let into this country and have abused it. I'm ashamed that we MUST PUT UP we these kind of people, and what do we get? Absolutely Nothing. I do my part to buy Australian all the time, I know I can't afford it, but I would rather that than sending my dollar overseas. Talk is cheap, how about lending a hand and making a commitment for others out there?

Answer 15

Insist on buying Australian products. I also think tourism to country regions also helps not just to bring in revenue for struggling towns, but to see and experience first hand the drought and just how vulnerable we really are.

Answer 16

G'day Lee,

I live in the Mid West of WA. I reckon one of  the most important issues for farmers is looking after their mental health, ie combatting depression. Frequent, free counselling should be widely available in remote areas.

Plus free beer, and lots of it  ....  : )

Answer 17

No one likes to know the cold, hard truth when it comes to business and lifestyle - and lets face it, farming is a business like all others - a profit making exercise (I don't know of any "Charity" farms as yet).

I recall at "Boarding School"  in the late 70's, early 80's (in NSW Country) that the talk of the town was drought and how hard life was.  So, we prayed for rain, we raised money through walkathons and my father (being the regional

Bank Manager), lent a lot of money.  That was 30 years ago, and nothing has changed apart from more arid land.

It's about time that the hard advice was given to those trying to extract profit from this land to do it appropriately ie - use the land according to the conditions available.  Australia is not Europe of US, we live in a harsh environment which makes it ridiculous and selfish of those farmers to constantly complain that they are going broke because of lack of precipitation and we being taxpayers seem to never stop funding their business and god-given lifestyle.

The only way to help these people is to be honest and stop encouraging and sympathising with them (just as you are doing now) and suggest that if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, it may just be a duck.

65% of Australian farmers shouldn't be raping and squandering the land (cotton is just one example), expecting the largesse of the Aust Taxpayer to foot the bill then justifying it by saying that we feed the nation and threatening our politicians (us) throughh the media with claims of suicide etc  because they don't have the courage to admit that they don't have a viable business - many people in business go through this every day and have to live with the consequences without the public outpouring of sympathy.

So the best thing we can tell these people is the truth before a financial institution does.

Answer 18

As a nation:

1.Low interest loans with hibernation periods during hard times.

2.Top quality travelling counselling services with phone and internet backup.

3. Government support to set up a national supermarket chain, owned by the producers and selling only Australian produce without the middlemen. This will give our producers a fair go and sit greedy bloody Woolworths and Coles on their respective arses.

As individuals:

1. Support fundraisers aimed at our drought ravaged brothers.

2. Buy only Australian owned and produced food products.

3. Campaign for a new supermarket chain with Australian produce.

EDIT:

Are you really interested in getting answers? Do you read them?

Or do you just want us to read what you have to say ?

Answer 19

Get the schools involved , colour competions with small prizes ,cake stalls at school to raise cash ,have a muffty day where the children dress in jeans & cowboy /girl a gold coin donation to do so , send a information to the schools to make the children aware , children love to do things that help others

Answer 20

first love ya work listen to it all the time.

second i understand the biggest problem is money and not enough of it every thing cost and no one can pay now if you work with stock feed producers and fertiliser producers and see if they will allow publicity and see if they can lower prices or do give aways and that don't work do the good old phone polls.

Answer 21

Individually we can support the drought stricken farmers by writing a letter to your federal and state politicians stating to support more funding to these farmers encouraging crops that naturally need less water.

As a nation we could show gratitude for the people that grow the best cleanest food in the world. Major Centres could throw party's for them, creating more awareness of how important our farmers are to our future existence.

Answer 22

Hi think you are doing a great job by what you are doing now Live in England so don't really suffer from droughts but I do feel for people who suffer at the hands of such problems.

You could run  get people to donate dry food and drink blankets bedding towels and anything that will help so you can make up a rescue hamper for those who suffer you could also have available names and contact numbers of local people who would be willing to offer warm shelter for these families and just keep up the good work all round it is nice to know somewhere out there there is a community as you don't see that as often as you should these days

Answer 23

Be Australian...

Buy Australian....

For many years, we have been farming on marginal country that wasn't viable...

Eventually, the piper has to be paid...

Answer 24

Hi Lee.

I believe one way to help farmers ease the hardships of drought is for Australians to buy from 100% Australian farmer owned companies like devondale,sunrice,Bega cheese etc.

Its not good enough for the farmer to work hard to produce a product and then have to dump it because of inferior imports.

The average grocery trolley contains 85% foreign owned and made costing Aussies around 100 million dollars a day heading to foreign corporate headquarters.

In Japan 98% of products are owned by Japanese organisations.

97% of 100% Aussie owned companies buy locally this having a flow on effect for every Australian business including farmers.

The supermarkets should have a whole product range sourced from 100% Australian owned companies.

The reason many great Aussie icons are foreign is because the Aussie company is being destroyed by unfair competition you only have to look up high or low on the supermarket shelves to find Australian as foreign corporations buy the best shelf space.

Once all 100% Aussie owned companies are destroyed thats if the average Australian is dumb enough to let that happen you will be paying higher grocery bills because the multinationals that own the whole shelves will be able to jack up the price as much as they like because their will be no 100% Aussie owned competition to keep prices low and affordable.

The solution to high grocery prices is for Australians to buy a whole product range of their groceries from 100% Australian owned companies this will stop multinationals from ripping off Aussie consumers and Aussie companies.

I suggest Aussies become patriotic shoppers and get themselves an Ausbuy or fightback guide for a couple of bucks at the supermarkets before its to late and you will be paying a higher price for foreign owned and made inferior rubbish mostly from China.

I think it would be great if Lee and John williamson got together and made a campaign song urging Aussies to buy 100% Aussie owned as its our future we are destroying by buying foreign.

Answer 25

Hi Lee Good to see you here;

I am afraid everyone recognizes the fact that Australia is the driest continent on earth. We are at the mercy of the wheather and we cannot scape from it. The kind of water dependant crops, gm or not, that our farmers are used to cannot be sustained, and that appears to be a fact many seem to ignore. And it is understandable, those communities out there are hurting and kids are leaving in droves. However, there is hope. LETS BRING WIND AND SOLAR FARMING in large scale so that the whole of the community benefits not only for having readily available green, clean and best of a, renewable and sustainable energy to use but also to SELL!!!! and the community as a whole would benefit.

The technology is already here and the conditions to prosper with it have been here for thousands and thousands of years!!!!

Answer 26

buy australian,BUT.not rice or cotton ,it's immoral the amount of water they use  after all this is the dryest continent We need to learn to live WITH the weather and farming deserts is  just not  viable ,(even if inapropriate farming has created them)creative planing for our dryer and dryer future would be more useful in the long term.

Answer 27

Let's see how Kevin Rudd & Penny Wong go with the new Dept of Climate Change.

Something may come of that.

Individually, use less water.  Quicker showers, restrictors on taps and other recycling methods.

Support our local products and buy Australian.  Notably from small supermarkets rather than Colesworths.  Keep the money in our country for future generations

I was surprised that you won Australian of the Year.  You're not exactly Fred Hollows or Tim Flannery.

Answer 28

Look after the ecosystems instead of clearing and stripping the land.

Its common sense.

Water tables have been proven to increase in level with more vegetation.

Alot of what has happened in farming areas is caused by the farmers themselves as they have stripped the land and treated it very badly.

Mass farming is very bad for the environment, individual people should grow as much food for themselves as possible, planting edible gardens and tree's that produce foods.

Stop treating the land and environment so badly.

Stop stripping the land and expecting it to give give give and yet not look after it.

I am sick of hearing about 'the drought' when most of it has been created by human interferance and backwards mentalities that still exist - yet want us to pay them to keep damaging the land!

Answer 29

no idea

Answer 30

Well what we can do is to donate more money to those who are in need.  We can try and support them financially and donate water or tanks to help them.  were I live we are on stage 4 water restrictions and we can also make them stricter and encourage them to get water tanks.  Our government can also help with the donations of money or the things to help them get through the drought.  We can also truck water to those in the outback.  Well  this is my idea and i hope Australia can get through this tough drought and we as a nation can help those who are effected by the drought to help them.

Answer 31

Hi Lee,

Thanks for raising this issue. I come from a farming background so am well aware of the hardships faced in this area.

I have set up landcare groups myself in the past to help bring communities together over issues of drought, salinity, environmentally friendly farm management, etc. Sadly apathy is the greatest hurdle to overcome and that applies to both farmers and the general community.

I realised that the general city community still doesn't associate with the farming community so the first step is get them to relate.

This was done by having field days closer to city and suburban areas " meet half way approach". I invited every appropriate corporate body, schools, gov dept,  local community group etc. There had to be something in it for everyone especially the kids because the kids bring the adults.

Sure it was hard work, but that's the only way to achieve anything.  Most city folk aren't going to go to a field day in the bush but if it's 30 mins drive on a Sunday they do because its something new and different.

From this simple field day, we gained the respect and support of those that can help make change. We got the Defence Dept to take a serious interest in managing their own land, funding to help local farmers improve their practices, reduced the isolation so many felt and so on.

There simply were no negatives!

There are a few simple rules, make it affordable, make it fun, and make it a learning experience. This idea can be expanded to a national project without a lot of drama and it needs lots of individual volunteers to make it happen.

If you want get people to think like a nation you have to be prepared to step outside your comfort zone and show them how.

Funds raised from entrance and activities can go back to counselling, and other support systems.

I agree that sustainable land management is the only way to farm productively and it is extremely hard for many to change because they simply can't afford to change when broke but lets start in schools and educate the farmers of the future, give them hope. Bring the field days into schools on a smaller scale.

Start a bumper sticker campaign in the city to remind them they are part of a greater nation while they sit at the lights sucking exhaust fumes. My point is - are those who knock farming prepared to change their own ways to help our nation.

Keep the message we are all in this together in peoples faces.

Hold a national telethon to raise needed funds.

Give a farming family a break and offer them a week in your own home. Shows you care.

Put a swear/abuse  box in parliament sittings and charge a $1 for every derogatory comment, swear word, etc. There's millions to be made and a strong message as well.

When I was farming we had an "open farm policy" which meant we were open to new ideas. The reality of it was we set aside some land to let government agencies etc, experiment on new farming techniques, environmentally friendly land management practices, ways to reduce salinity, trials new crops and so on.

We had tours to allow city and country folk see what can be done. I did this because too many people are self centered and won't share idea's for fear of ridicule, or merely wanting to maintain market edge.  

The reality was I gained friendships, ideas, and ultimately more profit because I wasn't afraid to incorporate new techniques that I could see worked.

There's one major draw back with suggestions re the big corporations Woollies, Coles etc- "Greed"- because until you can get all their individual shareholders to think differently they don;t need to change, their job is profit.  

I'd love to see a don't buy Anti Australian shares day. Which would involve identifying those companies on the stock market that truly aren't supporting Australian made etc.

Oh and thanks Woollies for your drought relief day, try it for 365 days instead of 1 day a year.

If people want to save money on groceries etc start buying as co-ops. Buy meat from the sale yards, get a butcher to prep it. You'd be stunned at the savings and if done on a large scale it sends a message to the major supermarkets. The trouble here is Aussies in general will always take the easy route, with an "oh it's all too hard, attitude", but there are farmers out there even close to cities that are prepared to help with such ideas.

Sorry I better stop here but have heaps more ideas.

I miss the land like only a farmer can understand but I love the fact if I hadn't been a farmer, I too may have a narrow view.

I can't make it rain but I for one will give my time,  determination and skills to help. So lets get on with it and take action.