Self-Reliant Citizens and Targeted Populations: The Case of Australian Agriculture in the 1990S‪.‬

Since the early 1990s the notion of 'self-reliance' has assumed a central place in agricultural and regional policy in Australia. Applied specifically to agriculture, rural producers have been told by governments and farm organizations that they must become less dependent on government support and develop a more entrepreneurial attitude to financial and environmental risks. Such an approach is well illustrated in national initiatives such as the National Landcare Program (NLP) and Property Management Planning (PMP) (1) which are aimed at shaping farmers' management practices. On the one hand, it is argued in official policy documents that self-reliance is an essential part of farm management that leads to both profitability and long-term environmental sustainability. On the other hand, those farmers regarded by authorities as not having the capacity to become self-reliant are deemed to be hindering the development of a more internationally competitive sector and to have a limited future in primary production. A similar trend is evident in contemporary rural development strategies. These emphasize the significance of developing more enterprising attitudes among farmers so that they will deal effectively with change. (2) Communities that do not adopt, or resist such attitudes are blamed for their own demise. The notion of self-reliance also appears more generally in social policy, for example in the discourse of mutual obligation, with its powerful encouragement to managing the self more actively, in order to avoid dependence on government. (3) In both social and rural policy an entrepreneurial and self-reliant approach is seen to be positive and liberating for the individual. It is frequently contrasted with the long-term dangers to self-esteem and personal development of a life of passivity and dependence. As Anna Yeatman notes, dependency, according to this perspective: