I know I’m rare amongst media commentators when it comes to the drought in that I acknowledge that there’s not a lot governments can do in the short term to help the farmers who are struggling through it. They could throw more money at the problem but that won’t make it rain and it will only push the problem down the road a bit. Most others will bang the table shouting “the Government is doing nothing!” while ignoring the government programs that are in place.

That being said, it’s about bloody time some government, any government started planning for the future and started building some proper water infrastructure. It won’t help with this drought, but it WILL make the next one easier to live through.

However what annoys me is politicians pretending to care. Today in Federal Parliament, you may have seen what is being described as a “passionate” stoush between Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon over drought policy. I call bullshit on their passion. 

I’ve got a lot of time for Joel despite coming from the other side of the political spectrum but since his electorate of Hunter has moved away from some of the worst affected country towards more urban areas, I wonder if it’s his primary focus these days.

McCormack on the other hand is out of his depth. Out of his depth as an MP, out of his depth as Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, and certainly out of his depth as Deputy PM. Sadly, his electorate is one of the worst affected areas.

Character assessments aside, rather than the disgraceful grandstanding we saw today, I’d rather these two blokes sat down in private and came up with a plan. A plan to make it easier for farmers to survive the current drought. A plan to reinvigorate regional towns and a plan to build water infrastructure. The problem is, such a meeting would get results but not so many votes.