MechEngineer, farming is not the only occupation that the govt bails out. If you loose your job for whatever reason, you will be eligible for unemployment benefits, the same way as EC declared farmers are now. The main difference is that EC declared farmers can receive benefits without their farm assets being taken into account, in recognition of the fact that if this happened, they could not get back into their occupation as the capital costs would be too high. Its a unique industry in that respect. I do not for a moment discount the value of other jobs and businesses and I think you will find that few farmers will. Recognise though that farming is a unique industry that faces production issues that few other business do.

As for farms that have been handed down having no mortgage. Where do I start. Most people have more than 1 child. Often only one child remains on the farm. These people in their wills (at the minimum) have to leave either a percentage of their assets to the kids who leave (which is normally funded by those that stay, by bank borrowings), or give them cash before hand (again funded by those that are staying by way of bank borrowings). If more than 1 child stays, more land will have to be purchased (again with borrowings) so that the farm can support two families (assuming that both children will in turn have their own kids). In other cases the farm is considered to be the parents retirement fund, so the kids that plan to stay have to buy mum and dad out (which is fair, but again has to be funded by borrowings). To increase land area to increase income and gain those important economies of scale, more money must be borrowed. And then when you get a situation like the last 5 years where there has been next to no income, the bank gets its door knocked on again.

I know of 1 farmer who has no mortgage on his property. Just 1

Re Cubbie station, It is a blight on the land .Get it back to growing wool !
I could hardly believe my ears - I think it was last weekend on the tv watching and listening to a promoter for Cubbie talking about the great benefits of saving downstream properties from 100 klm wide floods ! They were responsible for saving the world !
So it's OK for Cubbie to Irrigate but when the good Lord tries to help the people downstream with a good natural cycle irrigation they stop it . With all the huge Irrigation storages pumped out to grow export cotton [ and we are exporting the water that grew it ], it could be years before there are any flows of significance to help those downstream towns and Stations.

There are two cotton farms adjacent for sale with their water entitlements ,that equate to about half of Cubbie's.These should be bought by the Federal, Qld and NSW Governments immediately. kartiya .

That's interesting kartiya. I would suggest that only corporates or the govt would be able to afford these properties. However, call me a pessimist, but I cant see the govt stepping in, especially not the QLD govt. I wonder if the NSW govt would purchase these properties, given that good management of them would see benefits flow downstream to NSW?? Too much to hope for.

Have you-all stopped to consider fow-ar wun seccun thayat the hoe-all ahdeah uv Cubbie Station may be nuthin moe-ah thayan t' hahyahlight certun ayahledgedlee Constut-yushunayal issues i-yun yo' fayah lann? Iyuts awll Buwll shee-ut! You-all is beyunn conned! Dayumm Yankees is behiyund awl thiyuss! "Juyump dowun, turnaroun, pick a bayul a cotton, Juyump dowun, turnaroun, pickabayal a day, juyump down......."

Country Gal,
As I understand it the Federal government was asked by Queensland to contribute to the purchase of Cubbie on a shared basis some 4 years ago . It refused .It may not refuse now .
However ,listening to the owner or his representative on the ABC's AM radio's progamme this morning ,he flatly refused to consider selling Cubbie "at any price ".
So that is what the 8 or so concerned downstream mayors and their residents that are affected by Cubbie, will have to battle to get a share of the catchment's water .
The Cubbie bloke obviously wants a REAL big quid !

Off the topic but a necessary note to stop any possible confusion.
To All esteemed contributors to THE NATIONAL FORUM ,due to my somewhat dodgy computor skills [according to my smarty pants family] and a sign in error, I am now , for now ,posting as kartiya jim instead of jusy plain kartiya.Same bloke, and yes, my name is jim. cheers .
ps "kartiya" has a time neglected blogspot for more debate or friendly banter.