The minister addressed a crowd of visitors at the Local Land Services (LLS) stand on the opening day of AgQuip to announce the government’s latest support measures to combat the problematic Hudson Pear. Mr Blair said the state government was exploring many options to help farmers combat the weed.

“Given the drought conditions we are finding that the Hudson Pear is becoming a more prevalent issue,” Mr Blair said.

“It was actually at this stand one year ago that LLS brought the Hudson Pear to the attention of the state government.

“From there the state government has been working very hard on finding a solution and now it is about implementing that research.”

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Mr Blair said the state government was also regularly consulting with farmers in regards to the state’s ongoing drought. “Obviously we are continuing to explore as many options through the state government’s drought assistance package,” he said.

“We are consulting with as many farmers as we can and we have reached a bit of a benchmark recently where we have processed more assistance requests than we have received.

“I think that shows that the assistance is required and we are working our way through the backlog to help people.”

State drought co-ordinator Pip Job said the government was receiving a variety of different support requests.

“Everyone’s needs are different and there have been a lot of different requests from all over the state,” Ms Job said.

“We understand everyone’s needs are different and that is the task ahead of us, how to best help everyone in the way they need.”

Ms Job said LLS was an excellent resource for farmers to access drought assistance and information about drought proofing.

“In terms of drought proofing, there are so many case studies happening around the state at the moment and the information gathered on those will be part of our advice going forward,” she said.