A New South Wales government grant for "critical producer" farming industries has been criticised for being open to metropolitan areas in Sydney.
The grant program is run by the Rural Assistance Authority and provides up to $100,000 to farmers who have been impacted by "severe weather and flooding that occurred from February 2022 onwards".
The grant is limited to primary producers in forestry, aquaculture, horticulture, and agriculture including broadacre cropping.
But 16 of the 62 eligible local government areas (LGA) are located in suburban Sydney, including the LGAs of Parramatta, Strathfield, Ryde, and the Inner West. Other listed LGAs are Newcastle and Wollongong.
Rural council areas currently being inundated, such as the Lachlan, Forbes and Bland Shires in the central west, and Moree and Narrabri in the north, are not eligible.
'Feels quite unfair'
Grain grower Sarah Curry farms near West Wyalong, south-west of Orange, in the state's central west.
She said she was "really disappointed" when she discovered she was not eligible for the grant, despite losing her entire 3,700 hectares of cropping this year, and 75 per cent last year.
"[They] have been granted access to grants that would immediately offer genuine assistance, but as far as I'm aware there are no farms in those regions."
"It's widespread, very devastating [the] impact of this flood, and to go in search of what assistance is available and to find shires like Waverley, and Strathfield — inner-city suburbs in Sydney being eligible — when areas that are genuinely massive grain-producing areas have no assistance available is very, very disappointing," she said.
Ms Curry could apply for a low-interest loan but she said that did not make sense.
"Any financial advisor will tell you that going into further debt to try to rectify this situation is not advisable," she said.
"It just really feels quite unfair."
More disaster relief funding in the works
Ms Curry's property is within the Cootamundra electorate, which is represented by NSW Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke.
"We're literally in her backyard. The whole district is massively flooding and it's impacting small businesses, schools — the children even just being able to get to school," she said.
"I just want to know why those areas were declared and have access to that kind of assistance when farming areas such as Warren, Forbes, and West Wyalong are not eligible for those grants.
"It's just been a complete oversight."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Primary Industries said the critical producer grant was designed to help industries that were disaster declared for flooding in February and March this year.
The spokesperson encouraged primary producers who had been affected more recently to respond to the Primary Industries Natural Disaster Damage Survey.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Ms Cooke said 55 local government areas across New South Wales had been declared as being impacted by natural disaster due to the September and October flooding.
They said the state was working with the Commonwealth to provide more targeted support for flood-affected communities under the jointly funded Disaster Relief Funding Arrangements.
