Rural Policy Assumptions and Policy Failure: The Case of the Re-establishment Grant

For 30 years successive Commonwealth governments have offered grants to encourage marginal farmers to quit farming. The grants have increased in generosity over time but there has only ever been a limited uptake of the program. This paper considers the assumptions policy-makers have made about farmers’ behaviour in formulating these programs and compares these with sociological evidence about farmers’ incentive structures. This case study provides an example of how the failure to take account of a sufficiently broad range of values when formulating policy can undermine policy objectives from the outset.