Welcome
to our article,
Dear readers, we are writing about social issues that effect our way of life, and this is blog, No. 2.
(This article was published the first time in August 2018)
Australia farming and their present problems.
Dear
readers, in our previous article we have talked about the farmers, and because they were doing well everybody was also doing well, but things change and today farmers are havung problems. So, let us see what they are, in this article, “Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business”. Today everybody is talking about the drought that is
ruining farming and there is no end in sight. Now I want to say that I am
writing this article for two reasons: One is to talk about the farmers problems
that the drought is causing, and the failure of the government to help them;
when they know that these things happen in Australia easily, because Australia
is the driest continent on earth.
Now,
this farmers problem gives me the opportunity to talk about the Australian
government failure to help the farmers and other people, because they are in
the same position as the farmer, according to the present, Social Security
System, which I believe can be improved from the present government.
Now,
let me explain, the farmers and some other people are cut off the Social
Security System, because they own properties, so, the assets-test eliminate
them to receive help, even when they need help like the farmers today. So, this
article is going to be the first article, followed by several other articles
about the Social Security System and Australian politician’s failure to help people in need.
We
may argue that the farmers are rich people, so, they must be the last people to
receive money from the government. Okay, you are right; but when the farmers
reach a stage, where they cannot run their farms anymore, because they have no
money; I believe that the government should step in and help them, even if it
is a free loan, to be paid back when the farms produce enough, and they are able
to pay back that loan. This is only a suggestion, and there are other ways that
the government can help.
I
believe that what is happening to the farmers today, it has happened before,
so, I want to point out that this is the same old failure that most governments
have. You see, what is happening in Australia now, brings back my life-time
memories, which are two folds: one is that farming is a risky business, because
the nature of farming is risky, since the weather and other things influence
the outcome, as we can see from this drought that today is crippling the
Australian farmers; the other is about how the government fails to help the
farmers even today, when help is urgently needed.
I
believe that today we are more advanced, so, these things should be easier to
understand and control, if everything can be worked out and organized, before
these things happen. Now, I may have started to write this article for the
farmers, but there are other things and places that the government is failing
to do the right things, so, I will be writing several articles, to point out
what I believe can be done to fix them; but let us go back to talk about the
farmers.
Anyhow,
I want to compare what I know from my life experiences, to what is happening
now in Australia. I must say that it is like when I was young, the Italian
government wanted only to collect the land tax from us farmers, because we
owned some land, even when the land did not produce anything; they still wanted
the land tax, and that was hurting us farmers. You see, we old people will
always go back and compare present happenings to the past and then have our
say, therefore, let me tell you part of my life story, to compare the past with
the present.
------------------------------------
Compare
old and new farming problems.
When I was young, I have been working in our
family farm in Southern Italy for twelve years, I gave up farming because we
worked hard but made very little money. During the time that I was working in
the farm, I remember two very bad years for us famers; one of this was in 1951
when we had a drought and the wheat and other crops completely failed. We
harvested what we could, but there was no much in it; the second time was in
1960, this time was too much rain, we again harvested what we could with the
same result, we made about twice as much as the seeds we used for sowing, now
that is bad because a good harvest is ten times plus what you sow, at least
that is what we believed then. Anyhow, also the farm animals did not do well,
because there wasn’t enough good food to go around; so, these events made me
think to give up farming, since it is too risky, and sometimes you work for next to
nothing.
But
not all farms were the same, so, let me explain, some people that had more land
and more money than us, had enough money to keep going, but I could not do that
because my family didn’t own enough land, so, I had to find another way to earn
a living. For this reason, I migrated to Australia hoping for the best. In
Australia I switched job and instead of farming, I worked in the building
industry; but in the back of my mind, I always thought about the farmers and their
risky business.
Anyhow,
most people in Australia were and are thinking that farmers are rich people;
well, some of them are rich and some are not, when everything goes well, it is
okay, but they are still running a risky business, and their business can lose
money easily.
Now,
the worst part of running a business and losing money; it is when people think
you are rich, and therefore, nobody cares about you, even if you are starving.
As it happens, farmers are at the top of this disadvantaged list, because farming
is very risky; you see, most time it depends from the weather, but the farmers
have no control over the weather, then, they own a lot of land, (they might
even be paying tax because they own this land, (like we did in Italy in the
fifties) but I don’t know much about this issue). The farmers are
self-employed, so, they don’t qualify for help from the government, because
they are self-employed and because of the assets-test. I believe that the
assets-test should not apply in special cases, if you cannot make any money
even if you work hard to earn it, the assets-test should not apply. I believe
that this is what is wrong with the assets-test today, they don’t consider if
you can make money, from what you have? And how much money you can make from
your assets. I belive that the ASSETS TEST must be changed, to be fair to people that need to be helped. We are going to say more about the assets-test later, where
we will be talking about the assets test for rental property owners. To do
all this, we are going to write several articles, so, we invite you to follow
us.
Now
let me go back to the farmers issues because life problems never come alone.
You see, it is the federal government that can help the farmers, but the
federal government is having trouble today, as we will explain.
-----------------------
Life problems never come alone.
Anyhow, I am
writing what is happening to the farming people in Australia, because there
is this drought problem. So, the farmers need help, it is too much for them to
keep going the way it is. I believe that they are not being helped enough from
the government when the government can do more to help them. But as it often
happens, our lives problems never come alone; so, troubles can increase other
existing troubles, even when they don’t belong to the original trouble.
Anyhow, what I am
trying to say here is that the federal government must help the farmers, but
today they have their own political problems, so, instead of trying to solve
the farmers problem, the politicians fight each other, they want to elect a new
Prime Minister, believing that it is the fault of the PM the reason that people
are leaving their coalition party; they don’t see that it is the party policies
that people don’t like, and one of this I believe it is the assets test,
because it puts the farmers and other people in a disadvantaged position.
About the political
scene, I believe that changing their leader is not going to solve their
political problem, unless those people that will be in charge, change their
policies. But that is not all, because also, what I am trying to say here is
what, senator Richard Di Natale, is talking about in this video, click the link
to view.
Richard Di Natale flares up in the
Senate - YouTube
OMG finally
somebody is telling the truth. Wake up Australian politicians and think about
the people that have voted for you first, it is your duty. Now, let us hope
that this political problem is solved quickly, so that the politician can go
back to work and solve the farmers problem, then solve the other problems.
Anyhow, let me go back to talk about the farmers problem, since the farmer are
neglected from the government.
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Farmers
are neglected from the government.
When we
compare today farming to the past, today it is easier than it used to be,
because of the progress we have made in farming; good farming practice helps
everybody, the proof of how the farmers help is written in this article, Farming today compared to
the old way, we wrote this article some time ago, and it
explain the benefit that modern farming brings to the people. Because farming helps us all, a
good government must care about the farmers; but today the farmers are
neglected from the government.
Now, as we
have said, today farming is still a risky business, when it should not be that
risky. You see, we need the government to intervene and make laws that help the
farmers when they need help. After all, it is the farmers that feed the people
of Australia, because all the food is grown in the farms; so, it is necessary
that the farmers are kept farming and continue to feed the entire population,
if that cannot be done, then one day food can cost a lot more. So, let me
explain how I see this farming situation.
Australia
is a vast country, but at the same time it is the driest continent on earth,
for this reason the Australian farmers must be organized in a way that they can
survive, when a dry spell happens like it is happening right now. They cannot
copy anybody else to solve their farming problems, when there is a drought or
something else that affects farming, because nobody else has got a problem as
large as Australia, so, we in Australia must be the first in the world to find
a solution to this farming problem.
I believe
that the Australian government must make laws, which will help the farmers
survive and be able to bring their farm back to produce whatever they produce,
when the drought is over. Now, here we are talking about the drought, but it
should apply to other things as well, because farming has too many ups and
downs, so, they need to be organized in such a way that when things go the
wrong way, like the drought they are experiencing now; this new future set up
that we are suggesting, will keep hardship to a minimum.
At this
point of time, let us imagine what can be done, then make some suggestions.
We can
suggest helping the farmers.
Today the
most important thing that the farmers must do is think how they can survive the
drought, or anything else that puts their livelihood at risk. Here we must
admit that most of the farmers are good at doing that, because farmers are
practical people, but that may not be enough, to save all of them, as we can
see from what is happening today. Therefore, we must think about a helping
solution. Here we suggest that an organization that collect things from the
farmers, when farming is doing well must be created, this is where the
government can step in, by setting up a collective organization, which for instance
collect every year a portion of the farms produce, or even some money when they
are doing well, before taxing them to collect their tax. Then this government
organization, will keep this tax-free reserve of food and money in reserve,
which then, it can be freely distributed, when it becomes necessary to help
those farmers in need.
Well,
this only a suggestion that we have written here. But this thing is not even
new; we are all familiar with the story in the Bible, when the Pharaoh of Egypt
dreamed about the seven fat cows that then were devoured by the seven skinny
cows. Joseph interpreted the dream that in the land of Egypt, there were going
to be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. The Pharaoh got
Joseph to organize a collection in the years of plenty, to be distributed on
the years of famine, and thus Egypt survived the years of famine.
What
happened in Egypt was a long time ago, and the earth seasons then were more
regular than today, because they did not have global warming to deal with, this
global warming is an extra problem that we have created ourselves, so, today
and in the future, we must create things that can overcome this global warming
problem. Meanwhile, we must be careful what we do; perhaps we should create more
social security for everyone including the farmers. Now, let us talk about our
present farming and other problems that we are having today.
Australia
is having problems.
Anyhow,
today what we want from the government cannot happen; because of what has
happened in Canberra recently; since the federal government has had political
problems; so, on the 24 of August 2018 they have replaced the Prime Minister;
now the new PM. is Scott Morison, but he needs still to choose the other
ministers and then swear them in, before they can talk about anything else. Anyhow,
we can say here that today Australia is still the lucky country, because there
are people that donate things, when people are in need; so, the farmer get some
help that way. Thanks, God, for that!
Anyhow, meanwhile
the farmers are praying for rain and praying that the people in Canberra will
remember them, and then, do something about helping the farmers. Because,
farming is a risky business even today, when things are easier to organize, for
this reason, we need to look at the Australian security system to see who is
responsible and what can be done.
I think I
have said enough in this article, see you in our next article, where we will
discuss about the Australian social security system that today is failing the
farmers, but not only the farmers, because there are other people that can be
served better. We believe that Australia can do better, if the Australian
government can organize the resource better.
I believe that we have said enough about this farmers problem, and the failure of the Social Security System, that is not helping them, and we will continue to write and publish more articles, hoping we can suggest something useful.
So, see you in our next article, Australian Social Security
To see more and the original article click on this link, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business.
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