Frustrating. So frustrating, and disappointing.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That was the feeling as the audience left the Q&A studio in Sydney on Monday night after an hour long debate on drought and water.
They felt Water and Drought Minister David Littleproud and Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon still didn't understand the gravity of the situation our farmers and their communities are facing.
The panel discussion was more of the same things we have heard before. The audience had hoped the politicians would champion the cause with passion and vigour.
It has been almost two years since I started The Big Dry campaign to fight for a fair go for drought-stricken farmers and conditions are even worse now.
Entire communities, as well as the farmers, are suffering. Farmers are already selling off their breeding stock.
Some families are surviving on chickpeas and tomato sauce, others on rice and Weet-Bix. Some are drinking the dam water because they can't afford to fill up the household tank with fresh water. Some cannot afford to pay for their children to stay at boarding school.
Some have been forced to sell the family farm.
Jobs are being lost in regional towns. Even engineers and lawyers are among the drought casualties.
The water crisis in regional towns is heartbreaking and the supply issues in the Murray-Darling Basin need to be addressed.
If we want to try to save our farmers, and our food bowl, we don't have time on our side. We need to give them immediate relief. We need more action at the frontline.
The state and federal governments have put money on the table, but the situation has become so big that it's a drop in the ocean.
After the 2015 April superstorm the Hunter region came together and formed a committee that worked to address the issues on the ground.
That happened because the storm was considered to be a natural disaster. Drought doesn't have that luxury, but at the very least it needs to have that kind of response.
We need to ease the pressures at an individual level as much as possible so farmers and communities can survive.
If it means we have to put our hand in our pocket as a nation and help raise some of the money, then so be it. After all, the farmers are trying to grow our food.