The Impact of the Drought on Regional Businesses
At Regional Development Australia Northern Inland, we are aware that most of the current drought focus has been on farmers and farm businesses and has ignored the flow-on effects to other regional businesses and the community.
We are also concerned that government drought policy and support mechanisms have hardly changed for the past 40 years, and that non-farm businesses cannot access government support, nor can they access programs to help them survive inevitable future droughts.
We are seeking to rectify this situation, and have two main objectives:
1. Have governments create support mechanisms for non-farm businesses in drought-affected regional areas now.
2. Have governments create better drought-preparedness policies for non-farm businesses going forward.
This survey is the first step in that process, as we will require a solid evidence base to support our call to action.
Your participation to assist our aims is greatly appreciated. We appreciate that your time is valuable, and we have kept this survey as short as possible while also collecting enough information to create change. The survey should take only 5 minutes to complete.
The deadline for survey responses is Friday the 30th of November.
All answers that are provided will be used in aggregate, and will not be identified to your business unless you provide us with permission to do so.
If you have any questions, please contact us on rdani@rdani.org.au or by calling our office on 6771 0700.
