Over 94 percent of dairy farmers clear for payment

Chairman of the Dairy Adjustment Authority (DAA), Mr Patrick Musgrave has advised today that processing of Dairy Structural Adjustment Program (DSAP) applications is 99 percent complete with 94 percent of dairy farmers receiving or clear to receive their DSAP payments into their bank account, and only a handful of difficult applications still to process.

"The DAA has approved 29,684 applications and has made payments to 27,014 eligible dairy farmers and could pay a further 1270 dairy farmers if the necessary paperwork was provided, making a total of 28,284 dairy farmer paid or clear for payment," Mr Musgrave said.

"The DAA is pleased to have completed this much of the processing, however we remain concerned that as many as 1,270 dairy farmers still have not completed and returned the necessary paperwork which will allow them to receive their payments.

"The money has been approved and is sitting there waiting to be deposited into bank accounts", Mr Musgrave said. "All we need is for dairy farmers to provide us with the details of their accounts and we can authorise the payments to be made."

The DAA would like to remind any dairy farmers who have received a Notice of Decision that they must return their bank account details on the Payment Account form that accompanies the Notice of Decision. They also must return the Farm Business Assessment (FBA) declaration and the Commonwealth Support or Adjustment Payments declaration.

"Without these details, we cannot authorise payments", Mr Musgrave said.

While the Commonwealth Government has recently announced an extension to the cut-off date for return of FBA declaration forms to 17 May 2001, Mr Musgrave advised that dairy farmers need to return this declaration and other forms before the DAA can begin to make payments.

The Authority has been communicating regularly with farmers, to the extent of ringing each farm household to remind them of the need to complete and return these forms.

"We know there isn't one dairy farmer who would not be happy to receive their entitlement, and because of that, the DAA has been working hard to ensure that each dairy farmer receives their payments as soon possible", Mr Musgrave said.

"Once again, I urge all dairy farmers to return their paperwork to the DAA as soon as possible, so that we can make the payments and finalise the program", he concluded.

ENDS

Further information:
Ian Harvey
Telephone 03 9507 2315