AGRICULTURE Minister Joe Helper has broken his promise to maintain services to the farm sector in the Mallee, says ROBERT COOKE

In August last year, the Victorian Department of Primary Industries announced it was going to withdraw from the Mallee Research Station site at Walpeup.

Before this, DPI had wound down the staff and equipment over a number of years.

Despite this, the local staff continued to source the majority of the operating budget from sources outside DPI.

At the time of the announcement of DPI's withdrawal, Victorian Agriculture Minister Joe Helper publicly made two key undertakings.

Mr Helper promised that services provided to Mallee agriculture would be maintained at their then-current level.

He also promised that the impact on the community of the DPI withdrawal would be kept to a minimum.

The challenge has been to replace the budget still provided by DPI and continue under a new management structure.

Several options are still being canvassed.

Key sources of funding expressed their support for the continued existence of the site for research.

The administration block consists of modern offices, and a large, well-appointed conference centre funded by grower levies, and other buildings.

There is 1000ha of land, with approximately 300ha of remnant native vegetation interspersed with 700ha of cleared land, with a 70-year history of agricultural research.

There is even an area of land that has never been artificially fertilised since it was cleared; surely a unique resource.

Climate change and sustainability-related issues have escalated in importance on the public policy agenda.

Such an intermix of agricultural land and remnant native vegetation is of great value to research bodies providing information to this debate.

While funding for environmental research associated with agricultural production has been increasing, a prime site for such research is being destroyed by DPI.

Recently a submission was made to the Victorian Government's Climate Change Green Paper, summarising the suitability of the Walpeup site to address some of the key issues they identify.

In the meantime, a small community that set out to buck the trend and survive could have done just that.

Walpeup is the research-facility equivalent of a university town. It has survived on the employment and economic activity generated by the Mallee Research Station.

Two years ago, in The Weekly Times, you may have read of the successful operation to save the Walpeup Store.

The community bought the store and advertised for tenants.

We couldn't have been more blessed. Our tenants have been diligent and determined to make a success of the opportunity they were presented with.

Mr Helper announced the impact on the community of the DPI withdrawal would be minimised by an expressions of interest process.

The DPI paid lip service to that and set about undermining it.

Their first tactic was to sponsor a concurrent but independent review of the research needs of the Mallee but then told their consultant to leave Walpeup out of the equation.

The DPI undertook to prepare a DVD on the strengths of the site, which never happened.

After extensive consultation about the strengths of the site, no community suggestions were taken up by DPI.

Directly contradicting the minister's undertakings, the director of the Future Farming division of DPI highlighted selling the site in an interview on ABC Radio in November last year.

The treatment of local DPI staff has been appalling.

The original expressed intention to transfer all staff to Irymple, has been a failure.

All the research results generated by grain grower levies and taxpayer contributions over the past 75 years have been transferred to Melbourne.

The plant and equipment is being disbursed among other DPI units around the state.

This is destroying what was left of Walpeup research capability. Mr Helper is in a terrible mess with this one now. The consortium bid emerging from the EOI process is still alive, but only just.

While a mess not entirely of his own making, can he possibly deliver on either of his key undertakings?

The chasm between the rhetoric and the reality has never been deeper; the gulf between spin and substance never wider.

In the meantime our treasured Walpeup store holders have decided not to renew their lease. The DPI has destroyed their business. Surely someone in government has enough common sense to stop DPI vandalising the site further.

• Robert Cooke is a member of the Mallee Research Facility Action Group and the Walpeup Research Facility Consultative Committee.