The Federal Government staged this week's drought crisis summit in Parkes, NSW to announce its latest drought assistance package, cynically aimed at persuading family farmers off the land, but the summit's deliberations were shifted by CEC candidates Ann Lawler, Ian McCaffrey and Graeme Muldoon to a serious discussion of the need for debt moratoria and water infrastructure projects—the only real solutions to the agricultural drought crisis.

The Federal Government is on a barely-disguised drive to annihilate family farming in Australia; the CEC is committed to a thriving agricultural sector in Australia, based on strong, independent family farms.

During the discussion period, Ann Lawler raised the immediate necessity for a debt moratorium, as a "firewall" to keep the farmers on the land. After freezing and renegotiating the debt, an emergency economic reconstruction program, in particular focused on new water infrastructure (click here for the CEC's detailed proposal) would need to be launched. Recreating a national bank, like the original Commonwealth Bank, would provide government financing for such a program.

After the CEC intervention, discussion became much more fruitful. In a Rural Press wire on the event, a debt moratorium was listed as the first of a series of proposals that emerged from the summit.

See / for a full report on the CEC's intervention.