TWO new ways for Australia’s 82,000 red meat and livestock businesses to give their views on the future structure of the industry have been announced.

An independent Red Meat Reform Taskforce is seeking wide-ranging feedback until 14 March on its discussion paper exploring the future roles, responsibilities and funding of Australia’s red meat industry bodies.

People can now call a dedicated phone line or participate in an online consultation forum to give their thoughts on strengths and weaknesses of current arrangements, areas where reform is needed, and the five governance options outlined in the discussion paper.

Lead Reviewer and Taskforce Chair Jim Varghese said the phone line and online forum will help ensure as many people as possible contribute to reforming the Memorandum of Understanding put in place 20 years ago to define the governance of the Australian red meat industry.

At the half-way point of the consultation period almost 400 people have downloaded the discussion paper.

“We are introducing these new ways for people to get involved before the consultation period ends on 14 March, so even more people can get involved and make this process as wide-ranging and consultative as possible,” Mr Varghese said.

There are now three ways to provide comments on the discussion paper, or Green Paper:

• Comments can be made via email or online submission form, with details of both at www.rmac.com.au/mou. The Green Paper can be downloaded at the same webpage.
• The telephone hotline will be open until 5pm 14 March: 02 6110 2097.
• The online consultation platform will be operating from 10 to 14 March at https://mindhive.org/issue/how-the-red-meat-industry-is-governed. The online consultation platform provides an easy-to-use forum to express thoughts and respond to ideas from other stakeholders, like on a Facebook page.

The Green Paper is part of an Independent Review of the MoU, which aims to position the industry for a better future by having the best structure to meet increasingly urgent challenges including climate change and other environmental factors, animal welfare, low levels of investment, changing consumption patterns, and technological disruption.

The Green Paper outlines five options for potential reform: incremental change to the status quo; law of the jungle; a hybrid model; a revitalised red meat industry led by a new organisation, and; other options not yet identified by the Taskforce that stakeholders may suggest through the consultation period.

Background to the Independent Review of the Red Meat MoU

After more than 20 years, it is time to take a critical look to ensure if the MoU is fit for purpose to guide the red meat industry through future challenges – A Red Meat Reform Taskforce has been formed to provide an independent assessment of how the Red Meat MoU can create real value for Australia’s red meat and livestock businesses, and what the Red Meat MoU should look like to position the industry to meet future challenges and opportunities

To do this, the Taskforce is considering the operation of the Red Meat M0U, the role of industry and government signatories and ongoing risks and opportunities to the industry.

The Taskforce is responsible for undertaking comprehensive consultation with signatories to the Red Meat MOU, industry stakeholders, red meat retailers and the community, and developing a set of recommendations for the consideration of the Minister and Red Meat MOU signatories.

Source: RMAC