Australia has had a formal National Drought Policy for nearly three decades. Over that time, the policy has morphed, with the programs that make up the policy being revised and replaced as it has sought to address both the concerns of the farm business and the welfare needs of farm families. The stated principles underpinning the policy have remained relatively stable, focusing on farmer self-reliance and risk management. The most recent iteration, embodied in a December 2018 National Drought Agreement, is very similar in stated intent to the original 1992 policy. Despite attempts to focus on risk management, however, the policy remains to a large extent crisis driven, with changes to the policy, particularly big-ticket spending, frequently announced during severe drought. As a result of the tension between the political imperative to respond during drought events and the desire to promote self-reliance and drought preparedness among farmers, the original policy’s ambition of avoiding ad hoc reactions has not been achieved, and the risk management/self-reliance theme is reflected more rhetorically than in policy substance. These tensions reflect the challenge of juggling the conflicting values around drought support, between broad community sympathy for farmers which is activated during drought, and aspirations of a risk management approach which requires longer term thinking and the avoidance of ad hoc policy making.

澳大利亚已经有近三十年的正式国家干旱政策。在那段时间里，该政策发生了变化，组成该政策的计划被修改和替换，以寻求解决农场经营的关注和农场家庭的福利需求。支持该政策的既定原则保持相对稳定，重点放在农民的自力更生和风险管理上。最近的一次迭代体现在2018年12月的《国家干旱协议》中，其意图与最初的1992年政策非常相似。尽管尝试着重于风险管理，但是该政策在很大程度上仍受危机驱动，其政策变化，尤其是大额支出，在严重干旱期间经常宣布。临时反应尚未实现，与政策实质相比，在措辞上更加体现了风险管理/自力更生主题。这些紧张关系反​​映了在干旱期间激发农民对农民的广泛同情与对风险管理方法的渴望之间需要兼顾干旱支持之间相互矛盾的价值观所带来的挑战，这种风险管理方法需要长期思考和避免临时性政策制定。