"There needs to be a new approach to living with dryness, as we prefer to call it, rather than dealing with drought. Governments should focus future policy on facilitating the social wellbeing of farm families, rural businesses and communities to improve their capacity to live with dryness. The new approach reaffirms the fact that Australia will face periods of prolonged dryness in the future and acknowledges that dryness has an adverse impact on the wellbeing of farm families, rural businesses and communities. This is the first assessment to examine the social impacts of dryness in a review of government drought policy. The panel believes people should be the priority (and not the farm property of the respective industry), and propose future policy be about people: changing perspectives on dryness"--Executive Summary
