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Friday, 8 April 2005 The Ricegrowers Association of Australia (RGA) has welcomed the decision of the Australian Government to declare Exceptional Circumstances (EC) for the ricegrowers of the Murray Valley region. “As the peak body representing ricegrowers in the Murray and Murrumbidgee Valleys, the RGA was actively involved in preparing this EC application with the support of the NSW Department,” said RGA President, Laurie Arthur. “We are acutely aware of the hardship endured by individual ricegrowers as a result of the continuing drought and worked hard to ensure this message was communicated to the Australian Government’s National Rural Advisory Council (NRAC) when we hosted their tour of the region on 24 February 2005, “The evidence collected by NRAC’s visit to the region backed the data supplied in the EC application showing that rainfall runoff into the Murray Valley storage dams has been the lowest four year sequence in 114 years,” said Mr Arthur “Ricegrowers will be further affected this year as cold day and night temperatures in early February resulted in cold damage and reduced yields for their 2005 rice crop, “And while ricegrowers have been eligible for income support through Centrelink since a prima facie case for EC was announced on 25 January 2005, this full EC declaration now means that eligible ricegrowers can apply for interest rate subsidies on new or existing loans to assist their farm business survive the drought. This includes ricegrowers who may have been rejected for Interim EC, “The RGA will continue to assess the impact of this drought on our Members and if necessary will apply to extend the EC declaration to other regions,” said Mr Arthur. CONTACT |
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