The Need to Strengthen Australian Grass Fed Cattle Industry Representation
Part 2 Synopsis
Introduction
Part 1 of HuntBlog’s newsletter on the need for
cattle producers to have a strong representative body to counteract supermarket
and processor power which was published on 20 April 2016 (a copy of which can be accessed in the "Featured Posts" section to the right or by clicking here) explored:
·
recent parliamentary inquiries into the grass fed
cattle organisational structures and concentration of processor power
·
recent government attempts to curb the deleterious
effects of increasing supermarket and processor power on the rural sector by
strengthening the power of the ACCC
·
reports by the Australian Farm
Institute and the National farmers Federation about the ineffectiveness of
Australian rural advocacy groups in comparison to successful overseas models,
·
the unsustainable plight of the cash-strapped State
Farmer Organisation (SFO) based grass fed cattle Peak Council, Cattle Council
of Australia (CCA)
·
the relative financial and representative weakness
of CCA in comparison to overseas service fee and levy funded rural advocacy
bodies and other Australian levy funded rural advocacy and policy development
organisations
·
the different outcomes achieved by American and
Australian representative bodies with respect to the quantum of industry taxes
and producers share of the retail dollar
Part 2 of that two-part HuntBlog newsletter
regarding the need to strengthen Australian grass fed cattle industry representation
will be published on 26 April 2016.
Conclusions and Solution Synopsis
Next week’s Part 2 of HuntBlog’s newsletter on the
need to strengthen Australian grass fed cattle industry representation in order
to combat increasing supermarket and processor power will
·
explore examples of successful Australian and
overseas rural representative body models that utilise a mix of service fee
income and levies to fund their operations; and
·
examine some key recommendations from the recent
Senate inquiry into Grass Fed Cattle Levy Funded Structures and Systems that
could help strengthen Australian grass fed cattle representation if they were
implemented in full or in part.
Part 2 of HuntBlog’s newsletter will also
·
examine possible sources of seed funding for the
establishment of the proposed new grass fed cattle representative body proposed
by the Grass Fed Cattle Levy Funded Structures and Systems Senate Inquiry
report; and
·
suggest a number of levy payer plebiscites that
should be conducted, in accordance with the provisions of the government’s
Levy Principles and Guidelines, once that new grass fed cattle representative
body is established.
Part 2 will also explore the importance of market
information for cattle producers operating in a free market economy as well as
the methods by which this could be achieved, such as the introduction of a mandatory
price reporting system in Australia.
Part 2 will set out safeguard mechanisms that could
be implemented through a Statutory Funding Agreement and an amended Memorandum
of Understanding to
·
establish a concrete Chinese Wall to ensure
that Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) receives sufficient funding to retain
its key personnel and carry out its core activities; and
·
to ensure that any levy funds that all advocacy
carried out by the new grass fed cattle representative body is funded from
interest earned from the RMAC reserve funds and income from services provided to members and not from
levies
Part 2 will also examine the proposition that
all of MLA's non-core activities should be fully contestable and suggest that
the proposed new grass fed cattle representative body model could be adopted by
other sectors of the red meat industry.
