Given the flooding rain in recent months, it might be hard to imagine that sooner or later Australia will be in the grips of another crippling drought.

But only two years ago, paddocks were parched, dams, bores and tanks were dry, and towns were trucking in drinking water. 

Gardens had withered and died, and you could forget about taking a long hot shower.

But that seems somewhat out of sight, out of mind for the new Labor government, which went to the federal election without a drought policy.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has told the ABC's Landline program it's something he plans to address.

"To be brutally frank, it's something I want to talk about a little bit more with our department," Senator Watt said.

"How we make sure that we are ready for the next drought because we can guarantee that there's going to be one before too long."

That will be encouraging for farmers hoping the new government doesn't wait until the next drought to start coming up with a decent plan.

Senator Watt said Labor's drought policy was "something that's an evolution".

"It hasn't been as much of a priority for either the former government or the new government given the amount of rain they've had around the country at the moment."

It's widely agreed that the worst time to try and develop a clear-eyed drought policy is during the natural disaster.

And drought policy is tricky business. Successive attempts by governments have been tried, reviewed and found wanting.

The Coalition's iteration was a $5 billion Future Drought Fund which provides $100 million each year for preparedness and so-called resilience programs.

But Senator Watt pointed out he was unhappy with how it worked under the former government.

"We were concerned that the future drought fund, at one point at least, was being used by the former government as one of their big shiny announcements that wasn't really delivering as much to farmers as was being promised," he said.

"So I've already had contact with some of the board of governors of the fund and it's something I'm looking forward to talking with them more about."

The minister will need to move quickly to get ahead of a major problem that creeps up quickly.