The 2023 Australasian Evaluation Society’s conference is being held in Brisbane between 27-29 September. Calls for papers are out and if you are interested, make sure you check out the the AES website. The conference theme is: Through the lens.
The five yearly Agricultural census undertaken by the ABS showed that 2020-21 was an exceptional year for Australian Agriculture. According to the article in the West Australian, Australian farmers made a 17 percent increase in profits in that year. Wheat and cotton were big winners thanks to drought-breaking rains and increased availability and use of irrigation. It was reported that the livestock situation stayed mostly constant. This has implications for the ability of RDCs to use extra levy funds to work with the Future Drought Fund initiatives to improve drought preparedness in the future.
https://thewest.com.au/business/agriculture/record-crops-deliver-big-agriculture-gains-c-7646578
The new Federal Minister for Agriculture is reviewing the former government’s approach to addressing drought. This could have implications for the current form of the Future Drought Fund Programs that commenced last year. However, the focus will remain on developing plans before droughts hit: “It’s widely agreed that the worst time to try and develop a clear-eyed drought policy is during the natural disaster.”
The new Labor government has also highlighted their plans for rural and regional Australia:
The Reef Water Quality Report Card 2020 was just released by the DAF Queensland Reef Water Quality Program and details progress towards the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan targets up to June 2020. The report card outlines results from the Paddock to Reef Integrated Monitoring, Modelling and Reporting Program. Overall, the results show continued progress towards the water quality targets. The report card can be access online at https://reportcard.reefplan.qld.gov.au/
The 2022 APEN Conference was successfully held online over the 9-11 February 2022 – with the theme of ‘Facilitating Change and the Opportunity from Disruption’. Over three exciting days, conference attendees had the choice of attending one of 3 masterclasses, a welcome function including an online trivia event, networking breakout sessions, 6 keynote speakers, APEN awards ceremony hosted by Libby Price followed by dinner speaker Tangaroa Walker, 86 presentation and poster sessions and finally finishing with a fun and interactive closing session. The Masterclasses were attended by 68 people in total and the conference attracted a total of 282 delegates supported by 26 incredible sponsors that enabled this conference to be the success that it was. More information on the conference can be found on the website: https://www.apenconference.com.au/