WAFarmers say drought funding is 'cleaning up the mess of Federal Government'

WAFarmers president, John Hassell, described the funding announcement as "the State government cleaning up the mess of the Federal government", referring to the phase-out of live sheep exports by sea.

"I think the minister is being proactive," Mr Hassell said.

"You could keep spending and spending and there'd probably still be people who might be in strife.

"It's one of those things that creeps up on you and it's very hard to know just how much (funding) is the right amount."

Mr Hassell said the funding directed at mental health was one of the most important parts of the package.

"Mental health is really important, it's a very serious issue," he said.

Mr Hassell said uncertainty around live export and forecasting errors made by the Bureau of Meteorology had led to a lot of insecurity within the various agricultural industries.

"The whole thing has been an unmitigated policy disaster that the State government is having to clean up after," he said.

Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA (PGA) livestock committee chairman, Chris Patmore, said the PGA was typically not in favour of subsidies and grants, preferring a business to run naturally without government interference.

"There's more things the government can do to help us by getting out of the way rather than interfering in the natural course of business events," Mr Patmore said.

"If a $5000 grant, or a $25,000 loan is going to make a meaningful difference to a business, then that business is probably not going to survive anyway.

"I wouldn't like to see the government dishing out big licks of money because that's not what the government is for.

"These are business decisions that business people have made and sometimes things don't always go in your favour, but you can't expect government handouts."

Mr Patmore said the unfavourable seasonal conditions would be less noticeable if livestock markets were more profitable, suggesting there should be more of an emphasis on market recovery rather than funding.

He believes the market will correct itself in about 12 months, however in this time he said there would be a large drop in sheep numbers.

"The biggest problem is the poor markets for our stock, and most of that is caused by government intervention, and by that I mean the Federal government intervention in our live exports," Mr Patmore said.

"All of those things, if they're fixed, will help the price of lamb, which will improve the profitability of producers, and the seasonal conditions will fade into insignificance then.

"Conditions are difficult and I sympathise with the farmers that have been caught out, and I've been in that situation before in 2006 - we had a really tough season in this area (Eneabba) and we weren't equipped to deal with it.

"But asking for government handouts is not the solution."

Mr Patmore acknowledged Ms Jarvis was in a difficult position in allocating the most effective amount of taxpayer dollars.

He praised the funding towards mental health but also said these initiatives could and should be supported outside of difficult seasonal conditions.

Many took to social media to weigh in on the issue.

Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale councillor, Morgan Byas, said the $5000 hardship grants could be spent in a single day as farmers spent thousands to keep animals alive.

"It shows just how out of touch this Minister and Government are," Mr Byas said.

Another Facebook commenter, Jorgen Jensen was quick to point out that the $8.6m in funding was just a fraction of what was allocated to the $64.3m Firearms Buyback Scheme, being 12.5 per cent.

"They don't seem to have any concept of the scale they have invoked with the ban of live export," replied Barry Gray on Twitter/X.

"Not going to do a lot...would be better to sort out the issues of selling livestock rather than having to hold and feed," replied Graham Stewart on Twitter/X.