Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce last week announced that the Red Meat Advisory Council had engaged a business analyst to investigate options to secure sustainable long-term funding for the red meat industry councils.
The latest announcement from the Minister comes seven months after Mr Joyce handed down his response to the grass-fed industry senate inquiry in which he agreed at the time to adopt two of seven recommendations made by the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee.
Tasmanian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said this was more procrastination. He sat on the senate inquiry committee, which delivered its report in 2014.
“At a minimum, recommendation one needs to be acted on. It is an absolute no-brainer for a producer body to have legislation to choose its own funds and be democratically elected,” Senator Whish-Wilson said.
Recommendation one is that a producer-owned body be established by legislation, however grass-fed groups agreed on setting up new industry body – code-named NewCorp – and presented this to the Minister in February last year. Industry set up a committee in August to implement the proposed model.
A spokesperson for the Minister said Mr Joyce’s vision was to see a viable, democratic representative organisation established to advocate on behalf of grass-fed beef producers, oversee levy investment with tangible outcomes and have greater transparency in doing so.
“The government’s response provides a way for industry to work toward this and progress has been made,”
Senator Whish-Wilson said he would like to see producers have more control of their destiny, and there were issues of a lack of processing capacity in the north and control of Coles and Woolworths.
“I would have liked to have looked more into the retail concentration but there wasn’t enough time and it’s the elephant in the room.”
Meanwhile, Northern NSW beef producer Vince Ptolemy believes there is a lack of producer engagement because there is no representation for grass-fed cattle producers.
The outspoken grazier from Kyogle is calling for government action on all seven key recommendations handed down by the senate inquiry.
“Producers are losing the will to fight because they get hammered and hammered,” he said.
He believes the beef bodies should be abolished so the government can start with a clean slate.
The biggest contribution of funding to MLA is from cattle producers.
MLA has spent $2 billion since its inception in the 90s, but we have seen the industry go backwards.”
Mr Ptolemy said there was no transparency, and members felt so disenfranchised that they did not bother registering to vote as they knew it would not change anything.
“I would like to ask the Minister for Agriculture to look at the voting system and spending of levy system. If they are fair, he should explain why they are fair and if they are not fair, change them.”
A spokesperson for the Minister Agriculture said progress had already been made, including an independent performance review of MLA to be completed by April. The issue of voting entitlements was also being addressed.
MLA changes
Managing director Richard Norton took over the MLA reins less than two years ago and the says the organisation bears little semblance to its pre-inquiry days.
“The Senate inquiry fundamentally changed the way MLA operates it structures and its systems and the way we relate to levy payers.
“If it was designed to change MLA, we have addressed the issues and the way we address industry.”
Mr Norton said although there was a lot more work to be done before a complete restructure, MLA was committed to change.
So far, annual operating costs have been cut by 7 per cent, since 2014 its constitution has changed twice to give more representation at the committee level.
There were now three grass-fed producers on the preselection committee, and contrary to public perception there are no processors on the board, Mr Norton said.
Amongst other changes, MLA had transformed its website so all information, reports and studies were now publicly accessible and it had ramped up its producer engagement.
It had also completed an independent review of it process for registering and determining voting entitlements, which was published in September.
The challenge was communicating its role. It was an industry service provider - not a representative - and industry tells MLA what it wants executed and how it wants the levy spent.
“In the last 18 months, MLA has had a strong relationship with peak industry in terms with where the money goes,” Mr Norton said.
Ultimately, industry needed to get involved and at its annual general meeting last year, only 2 per cent of levy payers voted and even fewer attended.
“And not one resolution was put forward.”
Cattle Council working on NewCorp
Cattle Council of Australia’s chief executive Jed Matz is philosophical with the government’s action on the seven recommendations.
“It would have been great, but we just have to accept the umpire’s decision.
“The reality is the government has considered the recommendations and has not accepted all of them.
“No matter what [some in the industry] think, industry has to accept and needs to work on with that.”
There were positive outcomes, particularly with identifying levy payers and voting entitlement.
The final report put through three recommendations, and Cattle Council along with other peak councils agreed on the third option.
“This is a legislated approach where data is collected and stored through a third party and that is then provided to the commercial services organisations,” Mr Matz said.
“There has been a view that processors have too much power and it has never been 100 per cent proven, but once we do know who levy payers are and how much they pay, will know who we represent so will move forward quickly.”
This has been put to the government and MLA, but Cattle Council is waiting while the government conducts another inquiry into levies collected by all industries.
“It might be by mid-February, so we are hoping the government agrees to change legislation.”
The government had also strengthened Cattle Council’s oversight role with MLA through the red meat industry’s Memorandum of Understanding.
This outlines the rules of engagement between the two bodies, and until now, MLA could overrule the Cattle Council.
“It hasn’t happened, but it means that can be strengthened up,” Mr Matz said.
The inquiry has also resulted in the industry united to agree on a potential structure for grassfed producers, code-named NewCorp.
“Now we have to find a to fund that sustainably.”
Mr Matz said the recommendation to partly fund the new body through grass-fed levies was something he agreed with, the reality was few governments would give tax revenue to a lobby group.
“One thing ultimately producers in Australia need to consider is ... if they really want a strong Cattle Council, they will have to fund it.”
Cattle Council has been criticised for being financially reliant on service funding agreements from MLA, but Mr Matz said this was not the case.
“What those service agreements are paying for is better consultation, which is what people want.
“ Any producer can apply to be a member of those committees - you don’t have to be a member of a state farming organisation.”