Something to THINK ABOUT …

While our Federal politicians obsess about which card to play next in the border protection game, they’re missing a very real and immediate disaster in our North where unprecedented floods have covered an area twice the size of Tasmania.

Farmers in north-west Queensland have lost up to half a million cattle in the floods and they need help from the national government now or they’ll be wiped out. They need urgent financial support and they need the Army to provide the facilities to help them bury their animals.

The AFR reports this morning that one Julia Creek farmer lost 6000 of his 7000 steers. That’s his next two years’ income gone. The losses to the industry in the region will probably exceed $1 billion

It’s time for the government to pull its collective head out of the Canberra bubble and act. The farmers can’t bury their dead animals until the floods subside and they can’t even think about restocking until they have the money and the capacity to rebuilt the thousands of kilometres of fencing that’s been destroyed.

Both the government and the opposition are daily pulling real and imaginary funds out of hollow logs for election pork barrelling. They must immediately find the funding to help the flooded farmers and their communities who face months and probably years of rebuilding.

Some are suggesting that we divert our overseas aid to help the flooded farmers. We’re quite capable of maintaining our commitments to improve the lives of our neighbours and coming to the aid of our beleaguered graziers.

But we have to do it now when they need it most.