It’s fair to say 2016 has been a year of mixed blessings for the agriculture industry.
Farmers have, in the last 12 months, faced drought, floods, a low Aussie dollar, and government turbulence. But they have also seen tremendous growth.
There have been many exciting developments this year for the farm sector.
The State Government sold the Port of Melbourne lease for $9.7 billion, which raised nearly $200 million for agriculture projects, including irrigation projects across Victoria.
The horticulture industry had a victory when we successfully won a lower 15 per cent tax rate for backpackers working on our farms, following 18 months of heavy campaigning.
There are record high beef and wool prices, and we have seen Senate and ACCC inquiries into uncompetitive behaviour in the red meat sector.
The VFF successfully campaigned for the Connections irrigation project to be reset with a focus on water savings and improved landowner engagement to ensure that irrigators get a modernised irrigation system that drives system cost efficiencies.
There have been many other good news stories, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing.
The dairy industry was rocked by dramatic milk price cuts in April, which led to government intervention, ACCC and ASIC inquiries, and a voluntary code of conduct proposed by industry groups, including the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria.
The VFF launched the Farmers Fund milk brand as a way to help the industry recover from the crisis. The Fund has so far awarded $1 million in grants to farmers with plans to boost farm productivity.
Right-to-farm issues continue to spur conflict between farmers and residents living in agricultural areas. The VFF has supported our members in their fights against local councils, arguing that the stringent local and state planning regulations were impeding growth in farm zones.
Our involvement in fighting for farmers’ right-to-farm led to a State parliamentary inquiry into the classifications of livestock operations. More importantly, it highlighted that farmers have the same rights as residents.
Drought has had a huge impact in North Central Victoria over the last two seasons, and farming communities have struggled from lack of income and lack of water irrigation and stock water.
The VFF enlisted the support of the Andrews Government to ensure action was taken to address the drought. We were also vocal in supporting volunteer firefighters in their campaign to keep the CFA out of union hands. The VFF helped raise money to assist Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria in taking legal action against the Enterprise Agreement being proposed by the United Firefighters Union.
The CFA dispute has been ongoing for nearly two years and this year saw political turmoil, the resignations of several high-ranking CFA officials and the sacking of the entire CFA board of directors. We let the State Government know bluntly that we will not back down from our support of the volunteer fire service and that is the view we continue to hold.
We have also campaigned against the State Government’s proposed tightening of native vegetation clearing regulations, which is a missed opportunity for government and farmers to work together in overhauling an unworkable native vegetation management system.
Convincing the Government to reconsider its position on native vegetation will be our first great challenge for the new year.
Finally, we have campaigned for an overhaul of the state’s fair go rates cap to stop councils cranking up the farm rate rise while keeping the “average” increase for all rate payers at or below the fair go cap. Expect to see this issue continue throughout the next year.
With our members’ support, we will fight to be more resilient, productive and better prepared for the challenges we might face in 2017.
