Beef over new national cattle group
After years of debate and opposition from one of the country’s leading farming groups, cattle producers have voted to form a new peak body called Cattle Australia.
At a special general meeting of the Cattle Council of Australia, members voted to replace the 43-year-old body with the new industry group.
“This provides a significantly different system that allows all those producers out there to have a say,” John McGoverne, CEO of the Cattle Council of Australia said.
The new body received overwhelming support, with more than 90 per cent of individual producers supporting the move.
“For the first time, the body representing grassfed cattle producers will be driven by and be in the control of grassfed cattle producers,” said Cattle Council president, Lloyd Hick.
The new body was also backed by three quarters of the country’s farming associations including Livestock SA, the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association and the Victorian Farmers Federation.
The federation’s Peter Star said the new body will help to bring the grass fed cattle industry’s 50,000 producers together.
“It’s going to give the broader part of the cattle industry a better opportunity for advocacy.”
But the new organisation which will have a new board of directors and CEO failed to win the support of everyone, with NSW farmers labelling it undemocratic.
NSW Farmers’ president Xavier Martin said under the new organisation the bigger producers will have an unfair voting advantage.
“We want a system where it’s one vote per farmer, instead of based off cattle numbers” he said.
“We are disappointed with this outcome for the industry, and we are assessing our options.”
McGoverne rejected the criticism saying the new voting arrangement is more representative of the industry.
“In developing the model, the number of bands, number of producers in each band and the number of votes were carefully considered so no one group had undue power,” he said.
“The weighted vote model proposed means that no single band holds the majority of the eligible voting entitlement.”
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the new body is a positive move.
“I’m glad to hear that the majority of industry have supported a proposal to create a democratically elected body to represent Australian cattle producers.”
“The grass-fed cattle industry is one of the biggest in Australian agriculture and dealing with a single representative body will make it easier for producers’ interests to be heard.”
The Cattle Australia constitution will be reviewed after two years, while the process to elect board members to the new group is due to begin in November.
-AAP
