National Farmers' Federation Report from John Underwood

David will state publicly that he is happy with the level of governance and accountability of NFF, but holds grave fears about its resources and about remaining truly National.

All members of Policy Council are worried about resources and shortfalls in State Farm Organisations and Commodity Councils affiliation subscriptions. The Policy Council held a Workshop late last year where these financial pressures were discussed. The roles of SFO’s, Commodity Councils and NFF were identified with an aim of reducing duplication. Western Australia still has 2 State Organisations. Other issues included the number of representatives on committees and sub-committees, who pays for their input and more especially who pays for the Chairmen of these Committees, as it is these Chairmen who have to report to NFF Policy Council.

The pathways of recommendations from Committees to the Policy Council were discussed. Input into these Committees from associated technical groups of outside organisations on technical data and background etc has to be assimilated into Policy Development.

The workshop also examined:

• The calculations of subscriptions
• All avenues of funding
• The Financial Trust and its charter
• The current situation of Commodity Council representatives being part of SFO’s that are not paid up.

NFF has set up a Constitution Review Group to look at voting rights, broadening of membership and possible conflicts as part of an overall review of our Constitution. The present policy of sitting “funded by NFF” at the Policy Council table is obviously unsustainable.

Policy Council met last week on 21 st March 2007. Both President David and CEO Ben Fargher commented on our ’07 budget submissions on behalf of Australian Farmers.

AGRICULTURE ADVANCING AUSTRALIA

NFF were looking for commitment to the Agriculture Advancing Australia which has been formulated over the last couple of years. AAA covers issues like Farmbis, Rural Finance, Counselling Services, Farm Help, FMD’s etc.

DROUGHT

Drought aid has been well and truly documented. Drought is presently putting massive pressure on countless farmers, farm businesses and thus affecting the overall Australian Economy. Farming Mums and Dads are struggling so help under Exceptional Circumstances Criteria to be available on demand is a huge help. The NFF Policy on Drought and Drought Aid will eventually move to a Drought Preparedness Phase.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

NFF is requesting that some funding of the next National Heritage Trust Allocation be directed at Environmental Stewardship programmes. Put simply, if farmers take land out of agricultural production for environmental purposes, they should receive some compensation. NFF is confident that widespread adoption of this incentive based regime, with appropriate regulation, will deliver environmental outcomes. It is important however that the majority of the funding does not go into administration.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is possibly the biggest challenge facing Australian Farmers right now and into the future. At this stage the farming community does not have the information or knowledge to make the best decisions. In particular:

• Precision and resolution of climate change projections and adoption responses.
• Identifying and measuring of emissions from agricultural practices. There is a lot of guess work and estimations at present
• The potential of Bio-energy to reduce emissions.
• Development of cost effective options for mitigation and sequestration of CO2 emissions.

NFF wants government commitment and resources to build a research capacity so as to define and design the required policies and outcomes in a time frame that provides certainty and security for the future of the agricultural sector.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Australian Farmers are proud of their strong record of productivity and growth (of necessity), but realise that we are only as strong as our weakest link in remaining competitive. Transport infrastructure across all modes is absolutely vital to ensure on-farm efficiencies are matched throughout the supply chain. NFF has highlighted specific concerns to the Government including:

• Rail infrastructure – aging rail tracks and poorly designed tracks mean trains are speed limited and unreliable.
• A significant investment in road infrastructure at a local level through increased support to Roads to Recovery Programmes.
• A north – south rail corridor with freight hubs along this and other corridors creating greater inter-connectivity between road and rail.

In general NFF envisages Federal funding of a second round of “Auslink” type programmes. We need more than the $15 billion allocated in the first round. Ports and their infrastructure are also dragging the chain.

LABOUR

In the face of our labour shortages across Australia, the Australian government has introduced the so called 457 Visa for skilled and semi-skilled migrants to relieve the labour shortages and boost productivity. However it has had little use in our sector due to the minimum salary conditions being aligned to other industries (eg mining) and not to our awards established under Workchoice and the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standards.

More work needs to be done to encourage foreign workers into Agriculture. Their applicable tax rate should be lowered from 29% to 13% in line with Australian workers. It would not cost the Australian Tax Man anything as with held-tax is reimbursed on departure and this extra money in workers’ pay packets would be spent locally on GST goods.

QUARANTINE

NFF is requesting additional funding to ensure that the new Import Risk Assessment System is implemented as intended. There is a considerable back log of requests. NFF pressed hard for the recent adoption by the federal government of changes to IRAs bolstering the role of the now named Eminent Scientist Group. The aim is to ensure our Quarantine System is not only science based but has a practical science based system supporting it.

Much work has gone into this NFF’s Budget Submission. This year we not only have to influence the present government, but also we have to work on an alternative government to make sure they know where NFF is coming from. There is a very interesting and challenging year ahead.

Regarding last week’s Policy Council Meeting, the main part of the Agenda was keeping up with committee and sub-committee reports. There was no major change of direction.

Treasurer Nick Keating, along with Ben Fargher and his staff, are working within their budget. Like some other Executive Director we know, Ben has a great capacity to get someone else to pay for whatever has to be done. A large proportion of NFF staff are seconded from elsewhere. It is a challenge for NFF to do what we want them to do with the money we can afford to pay them.

WATER

Water and water security discussions go hand in hand with climate change. On 25 th January 2007, the Prime Minister released his National Water Plan for water security and $10 billion dollars to activate its implementation. NFF has undertaken a significant workload in responding to the Plan, and in particular, the positioning of the Agricultural sector to ensure appropriate implementation. This positioning incorporates some general principles on which NFF is not negotiable.

NFF has set up an Industry Working Group that is open to all interested stakeholders. This group will consult, collaborate and take collective action on issues of mutual importance and agreement. NFF has a role to act not only on the interests of its members, but also to act as a conduit for others. As always, this Industry Group does not set Policy but reports to the NFF Water Committee, who in turn report to the Policy Council where NTCA’s right hand is just as important as the NSW or Victorian Farmers vote.

It’s just that when Chairmen of these Committees are elected, we only get 1 vote and others get 10 or more, depending of their NFF financial contributions.

On behalf of NTCA, I’m happy with this, but some others are not.

I have commented earlier on NHT 3, Environmental Stewardship Programmes and Climate Change. No doubt we will hear more on these topics tomorrow.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Telecommunications will certainly be discussed tomorrow. I know Telstra are a major sponsor of ours, however right now they are struggling. Their Next Generation System is picking up competitors’signals resulting in distortion. CDMA transmission will be switched off at the end of February 2008. They still have a lot of work to do on their mobile phones, their suitability, attachments and car kit availability.

NFF has a good rappore with Telstra, so here’s hoping Telstra get their act together in time. NFF’s advice is to leave your new mobile phone purchases as late as possible.

The Farm Business and Economic Committee reported on issues I’ve already discussed. Other issues they commented on included: Management Investment Schemes, Biofuels, Food Regulation and Bio-technology.

My personal position on MISs is that they are acceptable for the forestry industry, but for our Pastoral Industry they should work under exactly the same ATO rulings that all station enterprises work under. If MIS can write off project expenses, eg cost of purchasing a property, then so should we be able to. What has happened is that MISs have distorted the value of properties. My question to NTCA is this: “Is this good or bad?” Interestingly the bank managers have never been more friendly.

Over the next 12 to 18 months the existing State and Territory Governments Moratoria on GM food production will end. Here is a challenge for NTCA and NFF to influence future direction. My personal thoughts are that we have to encourage more discussion, research and flexibility on all things genetically modified.

TRADE

Trade Negotiations - I’ll leave for David Crombie tomorrow. NT snails move quicker but we have to keep going forward. World attitudes are slowly changing.

WORK PLACE RELATIONS

This Committee has nothing new to report. NFF has applied for new funding to help a coordinated Work Choice Agreements. This could be a whole new ball game after the election later this year.

In summary, it has been a challenging year for NFF. I hope NTCA appreciates the efforts of NFF on their behalf. I feel strongly that NTCA needs NFF, but the pressure is increasing on all State Farm Organisations to cut costs and so NFF affiliations fees are coming under scrutiny.

Perhaps the comment of the week was a motion from PGA that half of all Western Australian shires were bankrupt and that pastoral rents were seen as the cash cow. PGA moved that all pastoral rate increases be tied to Cost Price Index (CPI). And we know that the NT has not yet been rated.

I enjoy the challenge of representing NT pastoralists in the national arena and I thank you all for your confidence and support. Above all thanks to my family, who are my greatest back-up. However it is time to think about my replacement, whom I am happy to help through the initial unknown corridors.

That concludes my Report Mr President. Tomorrow will be an interesting day.

John Underwood
Riveren Station
25 th March 2007