Mounting business pressures bought on by drought, market access problems and the consequent impact on cattle pricing, and debt levels occupied the minds of northern Australian beef producers attending an industry forum in Mt Isa yesterday.
Even though the day included detailed briefings on the current Cattle Council of Australia restructure process, producers showed little real interest in engaging on the subject during question-time, instead focussing squarely on impacts affecting their bottom line.
The meeting, convened by Cattle Council of Australia, AgForce, NT Cattlemens Association and MLA, attracted a solid representation of about 120 northern Australian producers drawn from as far east as Charters Towers and west across the Barkly and Victoria River districts of the Northern Territory. Given the average herd size represented, the audience represented a sizeable chunk of the Australian cattle production sector.
The fact that the Northern Beef Steakholder Forum attracted an unusually strong Federal and State political representation perhaps skewed the direction of dialogue more towards topics where participants felt their elected representatives could exert more influence.
With a Federal election in the wind, both newly elected Federal agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon and the opposition’s shadow minister, John Cobb made late decisions to attend, as did Queensland agriculture minister John McVeigh. Both ministers left the meeting early to undertake inspections of droughted country in Queensland’s northwest.
The forum was the second of four orchestrated by CCA to engage with grassroots stakeholders seeking feedback and fielding questions about the CCA restructure process. A similar forum was held in Casino last month, with further meetings to follow in Naracoorte (SA) and Bendigo (Vic).
The only real discussion about industry restructure came during a panel session when AA Co chief operating officer Troy Setter asked CCA chief executive Jed Matz exactly what the timeline was for the industry to achieve an outcome, given the lengthy period that had already been occupied by the process without a popularly supported plan emerging.
“Have you got a line drawn in the sand by which time this process has to be over?” he asked.
“Do we all get behind the CCA and give it the resources to get on with it, or are we going to go through another year of wasting money and resources without reaching an outcome?”
Mr Matz said while a lot of effort had already gone into the task, the Australian beef industry was very diverse.
“We plan to do as much of the restructure model as we can before this year’s annual general meeting, aimed at delivering a more representative structure and a secure funding base,” he said.
A member of CCA’s restructure reference group, NTCA president David Warriner, told the audience that in his opinion, the industry could not afford to let the process lag on for another 12 months.
“Given the AGM is in November, I would imagine everything would have to be place by perhaps early to mid-October. So we don’t have a lot of time for CCA itself to get things in order (in terms of a model proposal) and get out there and sell the concept to industry, in order to get the support it needs to gain ministerial approval for the changes,” Mr Warriner said.
“We need a hell of a lot more consensus than what we have now, and the longer this goes on, potentially, the worse it will be,” he said.
“We’re at a point now that if we miss this upcoming deadline, it’s quite likely that we will see the end of the Cattle Council of Australia as we know it today, because the industry will probably just walk away from it.”
- Further reports on forum presentations covering R&D, market access, regulatory and tax reform, and live export trade issues will appear on Beef Central later today and tomorrow.
- CCA's next industry structure producer forums will be held in Bendigo (13 August); Naracoorte (15 August); and Launceston (24 September).