A meeting to be held in Brisbane this Friday will attempt to find a way forward for the stalled grassfed cattle industry restructure process.
The private meeting has been convened by Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce and will involve around 35 grassfed cattle industry representatives and red meat sector leaders.
In response to Beef Central’s questions about the meeting, Mr Joyce’s office said the minister will use the meeting to help guide the government’s response to the recent grassfed cattle industry senate inquiry.
“The Minister has invited representatives from relevant industry bodies and organisations to participate in a meeting to discuss issues relating to Recommendation 1 in order to better inform the government’s response.” a spokesperson for the minister said.
“The government has invited a broad cross section of stakeholders and is confident that a fair representation of industry views will be heard.
“The Government is still considering its response to the Senate inquiry recommendations however it is clear that there are varying views within industry as to how Recommendation 1 in particular should be responded to. This meeting follows ongoing stakeholder engagement since the Senate report was released in September.”
It probably hasn’t escaped anyone’s attention that Brisbane is where the two largest processors are located.
Interesting thought, John, but we’ve seen the invite list, and the only processor on it is Bindaree. Go figure. – Editor
What rubbish. They had their chance to put their position to the Senate enquiry now they want a second bite. It would be assumed that recommendation one was the result of the enquiry assessing the submissions. It is a grass fed levy what are “red meat sector leaders” doing involved? Minister do your job make a decision its all there in front of you. I would have thought the relevant industry body were people who grass fed cattle and paid a levy?
not sure that the restructure has stalled, we await the ministers involvement. CCA has had wicespread consultation with levy payers and it should be remembered that CCA through its SFO and independent members control half the grassfed cattle in Australia.
one wonders why other parts of the beef chain need to be involved in any reconstruction.eg processors, RMAC , . MLA are the industry service providers not policy setteers.