It’s been two years since Cattle Council of Australia and various self-appointed grower groups agreed on a new restructure model to improve grassfed cattle producer representation in Australia.
The new structure would see Cattle Council of Australia and its current State Farm Organisation (SFO)-based membership model replaced with a board of fully directly-elected directors. It would give all grassfed levy payers across Australia a say over how their levy funds are spent, and the ability to vote in, or stand for, industry elections.
The sound of the reform process since that time: crickets.
The big sticking point still remains funding.
By their actions a majority of producers have shown they are not interested in paying for membership of CCA (either via an SFO or directly) in its current form. Some say they already pay levies, and shouldn’t have to reach into their pockets again for the right to say how that money is spent.
But a new organisation needs to be funded.
The key target for several years has been levy money.
A senate committee recommended that a new grassroots producer body be established and all funding generated from the $5/head grassfed cattle levy go to that body in future (not directly to Meat & Livestock Australia, Animal Health Australia, the National Residue Survey as it currently does).
Years of debate have failed to convince the Government to agree to give a grower group direct levy funding. The Government’s view is that the senate committee overlooked the fact that levy funding is in fact tax money and cannot be controlled by what would be essentially a lobby group.
Driving the restructure process for the last few years has been an implementation committee representing groups such as CCA, Australian Meat Producers Group, Australian Beef Association etc. Some of these groups have unknown/unreported industry membership but have been afforded a strong level of representation on this committee (the membership of which is detailed below), more than the peak industry council itself.
The group’s inner workings and deliberations have been closed and are not often publicly discussed. For a process aimed at improving how grassfed levy payers are represented, grassfed levy payers themselves, apart from those on the committee, seem to be still very much in the dark about where the process is up to or where it is going.
Depending on the outcome of an application for Federal funding, that could change soon.
The committee has recently submitted an application for a share of the $5 million “Leadership in Agricultural Industries” grant fund, pledged by the Coalition Government before the last election to help farm representative groups develop leaders’ skills and lead their industries through transitional and structural adjustments.
The word is that dozens of other farm industry organisations have also applied for a share of the $5m fund. (One unconfirmed account suggests applications for the fund have been massively over-subscribed, and if all applications were totalled, the fund would need more than $25m to satisfy all requests.)
The fate of the funding application in that competitive environment is not yet known, or how much the grassfed cattle industry may receive.
How that money can be used is also subject to tight parameters. It is understood that one use at least some committee members are lobbying for is for the money to help fund first the identification of, and secondly a plebiscite of, all levy paying producers across Australia, so actual grassroots support for the proposed restructure model agreed to by grower groups back in February 2015 can be gauged. (We haven’t yet been able to clarify if the funds could be used for this purpose and are aiming to follow this up for another article).
There has been ongoing talk that Cattle Council of Australia’s representatives do not always participate in implementation committee meetings or phone hook ups, which detractors have interpreted as CCA not being committed to the restructure process, and as evidence that the council is only seeking funding so it can continue to operate as it currently does.
When quizzed about this by Beef Central this morning,CCA president Howard Smith emphatically rejected that was the case.
“We’re still working with the group, and exploring options,” he said.
“We have got a meeting with some of the group on Friday to discuss the way forward.
“We have been told categorically (by the Department and Ag Minister’s office) we’re not going to get a portion of the levy, that is off the table, so we are exploring other options and working with MLA and the Department, and looking at other ways forward to support some of the work Cattle Council does.
“Obviously we still want to transition towards the new direct elected model.
“Allegations that we’re dragging the chain are totally false, we are wanting to move to that direction.
“We have got the model, we’re just trying to work out ways of funding it.”
Members of the Implementation Committee are:
Chair, Troy Setter, Northern Pastoral Group (NPG)
Howard Smith, President of Cattle Council (CCA)
Cattle Council CEO, (Position not currently filled following recent resignation of Duncan Bremner)
Peter Hall, Director, CCA
Brett Hall, Director, CCA
Tom Stockwell, Northern Territory Cattleman’s Association (NTCA)
Ernie Camp, President, Australian Beef Association (ABA)
David Byard, Executive Officer, Australian Beef Association (ABA)
Norman Hunt, Rural Industry legal advocate, Australian Meat Producers Group (AMPG)
Cameron McIntyre, AMPG
Ashley McKay, AMPG
Joanne Rae, AMPG
Paul Wright, AMPG
Linda Hewitt, ABA
Loretta Carroll, Ovens Valley VFF