Milton Dick MP, Speaker of the House of Reps with Meat & Livestock Australia Corporate Chef, Sam Burke and Australian Parliament House Head Chef, David Learmonth.
AUSTRALIA’S red meat and livestock industry kicked off 2023 with a celebration of the industry at Parliament House on Tuesday.
Alastair James, RMAC CEO; Milton Dick MP, Speaker of the House of Reps; Minister Murray Watt; Senator Susan McDonald; John McKillop, RMAC Independent Chair.
The special Red Meat Advisory Council (RMAC) celebratory event was hosted by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick, together with the co-chairs of Parliamentary Friends of Australian Red Meat, Senators Susan McDonald and Raff Ciccone.
With a strong focus on sustainability, the cocktail style event for 160 guests was held in the Speaker’s Courtyard and featured a bespoke menu of beef, lamb and goat meat hors d’oeuvres, including Wagyu beef nigiri, lamb ribs, and goat tagine, all perfectly cooked by Meat & Livestock Australia’s corporate chef, Sam Burke and Australian Parliament House Head Chef, David Learmonth.
This event was preceded by a lunchtime offering of more than 450 smoked Australian brisket burgers dished up to parliamentarians, staffers, front desk workers and grounds people.
John McKillop
RMAC’s Independent Chair John McKillop said the evening was not only a celebration of all things red meat – but an important nod to the incredible people that make up Australia’s beef, sheep and goat industries.
“What makes our industry great is our people, our customers and communities, our livestock, our environment, our markets and our industry systems – and Tuesday evening was a celebration of it all,” Mr McKillop said.
“We are also very focused on sustainability – and I’m proud to say our sector is delivering on the plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.
“Most importantly, we’ve been on this journey since 2017. And we’re going to get there without compromising productivity or livestock numbers.
Murray Watt
“We’ve already received great support from the government on this vision, and our achievements to-date, and we look forward to continued support from the Minister for Agriculture, Murray Watt, among the very many others who help us do our jobs – and support our people.
“Our sector is a major employer in regional and rural communities, with some 76,000 businesses and 428,000 jobs.
“We collectively service 25 million Australians and more than 100 export destinations every single day with nutritious, safe, high-quality beef, sheep and goat meat.
“In addition to feeding millions of people though – with the right policy settings and ongoing research investment we can continue to be at the forefront of the climate solution,” Mr McKillop said.
Source: Red Meat Advisory Council
I hope the current Federal Government doesn’t forget the taste of that beef and other protein when it comes around to issues like land clearing for agricultural purposes, hazard reduction, feral animal control and live export, just to name some. Obviously much of the foregoing are predominantly state issues, but the Federal Government has an over-arching responsibility for rural industries, and the basis of that is not allowing either itself, or the state governments, to behave in such a way that food production is threatened with decline.