On Tuesday, January 28 the government announced it would extend its drought assistance packages to 52 extra councils but the Shoalhaven, Kiama and Eurobodalla all missed out - despite being in drought.

In a letter to Mrs Phillips, the Minister for Water Resources and Drought David Littleproud said as the agricultural workforce percentage (Shoalhaven 2.18 per cent, Kiama 1.94, Eurobodalla 2.94) was too low, the South Coast councils were not eligible for Drought Communities Program funding.

But The Sydney Morning Herald has revealed when Senator Bridget McKenzie was Regional Services Minister she approved the Latrobe local government area for assistance which had 2.92 per cent employed in agriculture - the same percentage as the Eurobodalla.

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Fiona Phillips said she'd been to the Minister "many times" and that farmers couldn't wait any longer for assistance.

"I'm going back to parliament on Monday so I'm going to be very, very loud in the Parliament in a number of ways, using every avenue to talk about bushfire and drought," she said.

"Many farmers have contacted me and want to access the drought assistance loans under the federal government's drought assistance package."

She said given the community was suffering through the worst fires it had ever seen, exacerbated by the drought, she couldn't understand why "the government would still deny struggling farmers help with the drought".