Fire-hit farmers smacked with fence bill.

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mrsK
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Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 2:23 pm

Fire-hit farmers smacked with fence bill.

Post by mrsK »

As if they haven't been through enough





Fire-hit farmers smacked with fence .

BUSHFIRE-hit farmers will be forced to foot the bill for thousands of kilometres of scorched fencing bordering roads and crown land.

The Victorian Government has shunned bushfire devastated farmers, refusing to share the cost of fences, even if they border crown land laden with heavy fuel loads.

More than 11,000 kilometres of fencing was destroyed in Australia's worst bushfire disaster.

About one third of the fences border public land and roads and will cost millions of dollars to replace.

Farmers share the cost of replacing fences with their neighbours, but the Government takes no responsibility for lost fencing abutting public property.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Simon Ramsay said many farming properties were either uninsured or underinsured.

Some farmers face bills of tens of thousands of dollars.

"We argue that there's a responsibility by Government to share 50 per cent of the cost," Mr Ramsay said.

"It's a shared fence. In suburbia where you have a boundary fence you share the cost."

Beef producer Judy Clements has a fence line bordering a protected water catchment in the Whittlesea/Kinglake ranges.

Most of her 80 hectare property was scorched on Black Saturday.

She says the crown land is a fire hazard and is disgusted the government refuses to share responsibility for the fence.

For some, the cost is an added burden on top of losing loved ones and homes.

"I think it's disgusting, I think it's high time the government did a major review of their role and responsibility.

"The levels of trauma and anxiety and stress for anybody involved with the fires has been enormous.

"To then discover that they have to carry the 100 per cent weight of the cost of restoring fencing on the boundary that they might share with crown land becomes an extra blow and an extra burden."

The Victorian Government will pay a $400 subsidy on insurance excesses for farmers. It has also put up $350,000 in freight subsidies and $200,000 to help coordinate the replacement of boundary fencing.

Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said the Government's contributions would help the VFF coordinate the restoration of fences through a network of members and volunteers.

But in a statement last week he said fences were "assets of the landholder and should be insured".

Nationals leader Peter Ryan said it was an injustice that farmers shouldered the full cost for fencing on shared land.

It was the most pressing issue for farmers, of an enormous scale and involved ``vast expense''.

One farmer in Mudgegonga, near Beechworth, had lost 6km of fencing on a road frontage, he said.

"You're talking a couple of hundred grand and up to do it and it's just a terrible problem for farmers, a shocking problem."

Mr Ryan called on the Government to provide the materials for refencing using volunteer labour and said the burden of cost would have to be revisited in future.
It's nice to be important,but more important to be nice.
kayleneaussie
Posts: 9127
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:11 am

Fire-hit farmers smacked with fence bill.

Post by kayleneaussie »

mrsK;1152129 wrote: As if they haven't been through enough





Fire-hit farmers smacked with fence .

BUSHFIRE-hit farmers will be forced to foot the bill for thousands of kilometres of scorched fencing bordering roads and crown land.

The Victorian Government has shunned bushfire devastated farmers, refusing to share the cost of fences, even if they border crown land laden with heavy fuel loads.

More than 11,000 kilometres of fencing was destroyed in Australia's worst bushfire disaster.

About one third of the fences border public land and roads and will cost millions of dollars to replace.

Farmers share the cost of replacing fences with their neighbours, but the Government takes no responsibility for lost fencing abutting public property.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Simon Ramsay said many farming properties were either uninsured or underinsured.

Some farmers face bills of tens of thousands of dollars.

"We argue that there's a responsibility by Government to share 50 per cent of the cost," Mr Ramsay said.

"It's a shared fence. In suburbia where you have a boundary fence you share the cost."

Beef producer Judy Clements has a fence line bordering a protected water catchment in the Whittlesea/Kinglake ranges.

Most of her 80 hectare property was scorched on Black Saturday.

She says the crown land is a fire hazard and is disgusted the government refuses to share responsibility for the fence.

For some, the cost is an added burden on top of losing loved ones and homes.

"I think it's disgusting, I think it's high time the government did a major review of their role and responsibility.

"The levels of trauma and anxiety and stress for anybody involved with the fires has been enormous.

"To then discover that they have to carry the 100 per cent weight of the cost of restoring fencing on the boundary that they might share with crown land becomes an extra blow and an extra burden."

The Victorian Government will pay a $400 subsidy on insurance excesses for farmers. It has also put up $350,000 in freight subsidies and $200,000 to help coordinate the replacement of boundary fencing.

Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said the Government's contributions would help the VFF coordinate the restoration of fences through a network of members and volunteers.

But in a statement last week he said fences were "assets of the landholder and should be insured".

Nationals leader Peter Ryan said it was an injustice that farmers shouldered the full cost for fencing on shared land.

It was the most pressing issue for farmers, of an enormous scale and involved ``vast expense''.

One farmer in Mudgegonga, near Beechworth, had lost 6km of fencing on a road frontage, he said.

"You're talking a couple of hundred grand and up to do it and it's just a terrible problem for farmers, a shocking problem."

Mr Ryan called on the Government to provide the materials for refencing using volunteer labour and said the burden of cost would have to be revisited in future.


I am lost for words :mad:
FOC THREAD PART 1
pantoandy
Posts: 326
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:19 pm

Fire-hit farmers smacked with fence bill.

Post by pantoandy »

its the government passing the buck as usual
fuzzywuzzy
Posts: 6596
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:35 pm

Fire-hit farmers smacked with fence bill.

Post by fuzzywuzzy »

Hmmm doesn't quite work that way . The government provides the free top notch fencing to start off with but after that it's up to the farmer and his/her responsibility.

There are charities helping out farmers at the moment so they can save for the fences but most are insured for it anyway. Around here most of the fences are nearly all fixed because people have insured their properties.
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Odie
Posts: 33482
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:10 pm

Fire-hit farmers smacked with fence bill.

Post by Odie »

fuzzywuzzy;1188931 wrote: Hmmm doesn't quite work that way . The government provides the free top notch fencing to start off with but after that it's up to the farmer and his/her responsibility.

There are charities helping out farmers at the moment so they can save for the fences but most are insured for it anyway. Around here most of the fences are nearly all fixed because people have insured their properties.


omg......as if they haven't already been through enough with their cattle and other livestock lost.:-5:-5:-5
Life is just to short for drama.
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