The Western Australian Farmers’ Association’s threat to withdraw support for funding CSIRO agricultural research because it is offended by one CSIRO scientist’s view is unconstructive messenger shooting. The scientist Dr Dean Graetz, said last week, “”I think the best drought aid is nothing. Rural industry must face the fact that droughts are part of rural industry and if you can’t cope with them you have no place in that rural industry. . . . We are subsidising people who are poor managers.”
The federation said that it supported levies being directed to CSIRO in the past, but it should reconsider them and asked rhetorically, what would Dr Graetz’s view be on the victims of Cyclone Tracy or the Westgate Bridge collapse.
Well, those events are not regular, like drought. Drought is not a natural disaster but a regular occurrence. That is not to say that farmers in drought areas do not deserve sympathy and even financial help … provided it is not an endless cycle of financial help to people unsustainable farms … unsustainable because of management, size or land use.
CSIRO research is not only to help farmers; it is to help the nation. If that means some facing harsh reality and being given financial help to move off farms then it is still useful research. In any even Dr Graetz’s statement is only one view. It should encourage wider debate, not angry threats to funding.