Outgoing NTCA president David Connolly, immediate past National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president Todd Wilkinson and incoming NTCA president Henry Burke.
THE Federal Government came in for scathing criticism from outgoing Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association president David Connolly this morning as more than 400 people gathered in Alice Springs to celebrate the association’s 40th anniversary.
Today’s conference also saw Consolidated Pastoral Company general manager Henry Burke take over the reins as the 15th president of the association, which for four decades has served as a single powerful voice for the NT cattle industry.
Mr Burke said he felt a profound sense of pride to be elected president, continuing a journey with NTCA leadership that began as chair of the Barkly branch 20 years ago.
Amalgamation of three separate producer bodies to form the NTCA in 1984 had set the stage for decades of effective advocacy, he said, with annual NTCA conferences creating a dynamic platform for reconnection, learning and collaboration.
“NTCA is a formidable organisation, it’s strength lies in its unity and the engagement of its members,” Mr Burke said.
Rain in the red centre greeted the many people who conquered vast distances to be in Alice Springs for this week’s event, but none travelled as far as Todd Wilkinson, immediate past president of the United States’ largest cattle producer organisation, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, who flew 25 hours to speak at the event.
Both Mr Wilkinson and outgoing NTCA president David Connolly gave impassioned speeches along similar lines, drawing on the importance of industry unity and urging producers to push back against a rising tide of anti-livestock voices which are increasingly influencing government policy.
David Connolly said the current Federal Government appeared to be ”hell bent” on oppressing and punishing rural Australia.
“I feel our industry has been disrespected, unappreciated and unsupported by this current Federal Government.”
One example he pointed to were the Federal Government’s delays and lowball offers to compensate producers in response to a Federal Government ruling that its 2011 suspension of cattle exports to Indonesia was unlawful.
Despite analysis showing the real cost to industry was in excess of $2 billion, the Federal Government’s offer after costs would barely cover the cost of “corned beef sandwiches in the stock camp”.
He said Government lawyers had yesterday asked for a further nine-month delay, while many of those impacted had already “gone to their graves” awaiting compensation for the costs they incurred from the ill-fated 2011 decision.
“No dialogue, no discussion, just playing politics, the disrespect to our industry by this Government is reprehensible,” he said.
“If Government expects us to wither and cave in, then guess again. Our resolve has never been firmer.
“We are not weakened, we are not frightened but we are angry.
“We will continue this fight, we will get the justice the court has ordered.”
He said the Federal Government’s policy to ban the live sheep export trade was an “example of extreme prejudice against one section of the industry”.
“There is no mandate to do this, that is a fallacy. With just over 30pc of the primary vote, how do they have a mandate to do anything?”
He also raised concerns about NT Government plans to create new indigenous bureaucracies which would provide additional powers over the landmass where membership is based on race.
“Too many secret meetings are happening, and honesty and openness have been replaced by a smokescreen of uncertainty.
“The freedom to operate your business has never been so fragile.”
Former US NCBA president Todd Wilkinson said the detachment between the urban sector and rural sector has caused a lot of issues, with people who did not have an idea of what a steer or a heifer was telling producers how to run their operation.
He said he rapidly determined that just one voice is “a voice crying in the wilderness”, but “a bunch of unified voices can have an impact”.
“We regard ourselves as good environmentalists ourselves, people don’t tell us we have to respect the land, hell we make our living off it,” he said.
“But east coast and west coast in US don’t really give a rip what we think.”
He said many of the same well funded organisations with operating budgets of $600m and acronyms such as PETA, HSUS, ASPA and stated goals to end animal agriculture were also influencing groups in Australia such as Animals Australia.
“What we are seeing are the tentacles coming down,” he said.
“If you in Australia are just worried about what is happening here and the US is just worried about what happens in the US, they are going to run over us like a Mack truck.
“The money is coming out of Hollywood, those people are funding your very termination.
“We don’t need a bunch of woke people telling us what we need to do, what we need is a bunch of awake producers telling them to stick it in their ear.”
‘Get in the fight’
He urged Australian producers to join those in the US, Canada and Mexico and “get in the fight”.
“You need an international presence, and I am here to tell you that the US, Canada and Mexico are already joining the fight.
“It is getting so bad that many of the EU countries have already laid down and they’re doing whatever their told.
“The call is to you, you need a strong fighting national organisation, you have to push the discussion, and on the international front we need you.”
Cell-cultured protein concern
Mr Wilkinson also spoke of his concern about the potential for cell-cultured protein to displace a significant percentage of the market for grinding beef, which would impact the Australian industry directly.
“We can grow this crap in beer vats and feed the world. If that doesn’t scare you I don’t know what will.
“This is squarely facing you in the next 5 to 10 years. When JBS pours $75m into a plant in Spain that is supposed to be online in the middle of 2024 making this product, it is real, the big dogs are now in it.
“And when the very packers that we sell to are already seeing the writing on the wall, and understand that there is a challenge out there, we have got to get in the game and push back on this.”
“Don’t let the radicals dictate what happens across the world. You’ve got to get in the fight.
“Our goal is to bring the biggest meat producers across the world together and go in and fight on the world stage where we have been not nearly active enough. This is a big deal folks.
“I am going to ask you, is Australia going to sit on the shores and just rely on what happens in this country and put the blinders on and forget about what happens on the international stage?”
“Italy has banned this, France has said this has to be real beef
“A number of states across the US have passed laws saying they’re not going to be able to sell these.
“C’mon and get in the fight with us, I can tell you America’s producers are itching to throw a punch, the Canadians want to throw a punch in the worst way, we got to have you, our discussion goes no where unless we have Australia.”
More coverage of today’s NTCA conference in Alice Springs to come