The Bullagreen Brief

The operating environment for rural and regional businesses has shifted materially through the first half of 2026. Interest rates remain elevated. Fuel costs continue to be influenced by international supply conditions and temporary government relief. Fertiliser remains expensive. Seasonal conditions have improved in some areas but remain uneven, while stronger cattle prices are changing the forecast position for some livestock operators. Each of these movements affects rural

Work health and safety often receives the greatest public attention when rural businesses consider their responsibilities to workers. The employment and human resources layer beneath it can be easier to overlook. Employment contracts, worker classifications, superannuation, award compliance, workers compensation and informal family arrangements may remain unreviewed for years within otherwise well-run operations. These issues often become visible at the most difficult time: w

Work health and safety expectations across rural Australia are continuing to develop. Agriculture is one of six high-priority industries identified under the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2023–2033, alongside construction, transport, manufacturing, health care and social assistance, and public administration and safety. This priority status is contributing to ongoing regulator attention across the country. For rural operators, documented systems, current records

Succession planning has always been one of the most difficult conversations for rural families. Depending on the family, it may be happening around the kitchen table, in an adviser’s office, or not happening at all. What has changed over the past 12 months, and accelerated through the first half of 2026, is the pressure on the timing of those conversations. Bullagreen is seeing movement across relevant succession matters. Conversations that families may have deferred for year

The proposed changes announced in the 2026–27 Federal Budget extend beyond the taxation of discretionary trusts. Capital gains tax, negative gearing, corporate beneficiaries and business restructuring may all be affected if the measures proceed in their current form. For rural family groups, these issues may overlap. A family may hold agricultural land through a trust, own residential investment properties outside the farm, use a company beneficiary to retain trust income, an

The 2026–27 Federal Budget includes proposed changes to the taxation of discretionary trusts. For rural and regional business owners, the important question may not simply be whether a trust is connected to a farming operation. The types of income earned through the trust, and how each income stream may be treated under the proposed framework, may also need to be considered. This is particularly relevant for rural family trusts that receive a combination of primary production

By James Brouff, Founder and Group Managing Partner, Bullagreen Rural Specialists In March 2025, more than 30 rural and healthcare organisations joined forces to publish a joint statement calling on the federal government to invest $50 million over five years to address what they described as a mental health crisis in Australian agriculture. The coalition, led by the National Farmers' Federation and now endorsed by 60 organisations and individuals, put a number to something t

By James Brouff, Founder and Group Managing Partner, Bullagreen Rural Specialists In February 2026, Bloomberg published a feature on Australian farm succession, describing it as a crisis threatening some of the world's biggest farms. The story followed farming families across regional Australia navigating the question of what happens to the land when the generation that built it is ready to step back. It's a question more Australian farming families are facing right now than

By James Brouff, Founder and Group Managing Partner, Bullagreen Rural Specialists. In 2025, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the cash rate three times, bringing it from 4.35% down to 3.60% by August. For many rural and commercial borrowers, that shift sparked an immediate move to refinance and chase a better rate. Then inflation picked back up. The RBA raised rates in both February and March 2026, returning the cash rate to 4.10%. Major bank economists are now forecasting an