The Victorian Farmers Federation must reinstate the membership of dairy farmer Ian Morris after it lost a case in the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday.
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Mr Morris launched legal action after the VFF terminated his membership while he was running for the presidency of its commodity group, the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria.
The VFF must pay a chunk of Mr Morris' legal costs, as well as its own.
The morning after the win, a "much relieved" Mr Morris said he hadn't yet read Justice John Dixon's 64-page judgement.
"I'm more interested in the implications it might have for reform of the VFF and how they respond to the decision," he said.
"The decision should be of great comfort to rank and file members."
Mr Morris said the court action, which had been "one of the most stressful" times of his life and was financially costly for both parties, could have been avoided with mediation.
"I actually think what it means is that farmers have an opportunity to hold the board to account for spending all the money on the process when they didn't need to," he said.
"It could have been solved by a conference in January."
Mr Morris said he didn't know what the likely costs would be but he could have "bought the block next door" with the money he'd spent on lawyers.
The process is expensive for all involved. The VFF was represented by Andrew Broadfoot QC.
The benchmark fee for Queens Counsels is $1000 an hour and there were more than two days of hearings into the Morris matter before Justice Dixon.
Addressing the court in May, Mr Broadfoot warned costs were mounting.
"Every day that we are in this courtroom is costing farmers money ... probably costing tens of thousands of dollars for everybody to be here today," he said.
On Wednesday, a VFF spokesperson said the group was "considering the judgement" but would have more to say later in the week.
Although he had not yet heard from the VFF, Mr Morris said he assumed he would now be free to resume campaigning for the UDV presidency.
He'll push better engagement throughout the organisation, saying many branches were represented in policy discussions even though they weren't active while other branches received little or no feedback on issues they had raised.
"I'm standing for accountability and transparency in decision making," Mr Morris said.
That meant not only explaining policy positions with members, he said, but seeking their input and "being prepared to discuss it".
Mr Morris said the current culture was "elitist, top down, attacking individuals" was a roadblock to good advocacy and membership growth.
"Given what's happened to me, why would young people want to join?" he said.
"I mean, constantly saying that 'You're disruptors and disrespecting the processes of dairy leaders' just because you made proposals on the dairy plan, profitability, those kinds of things.
"It's just inappropriate. That culture has to change.
"We are a membership-based organisation and, at the end of the day, the farmers need to make the decisions."
The VFF is also facing legal action from a second ousted UDV member, Bruce Vallance, and it was revealed in an earlier hearing that the board had also resolved to terminate Oonagh Kilpatrick's membership, although the decision was not yet final.