Rural and Regional Adjustment Regulation 2011

The first start program is designed to provide finance to an applicant in the first years of establishment of the applicant’s primary production enterprise.

The purpose of assistance under the first start program is to enable an applicant to become a primary producer by assisting the applicant—

to acquire and operate a viable primary production enterprise; or

to acquire and operate a primary production enterprise on a staged basis, as part of a longer term plan for the applicant to operate a viable primary production enterprise; or

to enter the existing primary production enterprise of the applicant’s parents or other family member, as a part of a longer term plan for the applicant to operate a viable primary production enterprise in the applicant’s own right; or

to enter into a leasing, sharefarming or sharefishing arrangement that will lead to the applicant operating a viable primary production enterprise; or

to upgrade, build up or develop the applicant’s existing non-viable primary production enterprise that has not generated the majority of the applicant’s income to one of an economically sustainable size.