When the  National Farmers Federation was formed in 1979 it was the first time in the history of Australian Agriculture that Australia had a single peak farm lobby group.

Its useful to look at a brief history of farm organizations in Australia.

From the Book Surviving Global Change – Agriculture Interest Groups in Comparative Perspective by Professor Darren Halpin.

Chapter 7

“Digging Deep to keep their Clout” Agriculture Interest Groups In Australia

(Page 141)

The 1970’s were a period when the Whitlam and Fraser governments were embarking on their policies of trade liberalization. To achieve these aims both governments set about dismantling of almost 6 decades agriculture exceptional ism associated with state supported Agriculture.

The biggest challenge for government in achieving their radical reforms was the militant farmer resistance to their reform policies from the various state farm organizations and commodity groups.

The brilliant solution the Fraser government found to its conundrum was the formation of the National farmers Federation.

Page 141

The formation of the National Farmers Federation’s was the key to successive governments being able to drive trade Liberalization as fast and as far as they have. The day the NFF was formed Australian Agriculture and ordinary farmers were hijacked by the Agricultural elite.

Page 149

The National Farmers Federation was never established to reflected the voice of the average farmer – it was from the beginning established by and for the Agriculture elites of Australia, masquerading as the voice of all Australian farmers, when in reality it is the mouth piece of the agrarian elite.

Not only has it never listened to or lobbied for the majority wishes of its members but has actively worked to crush any grass roots farmers dissension.

Page 150

That pain has not never been born by the agrarian elite – it has been born by tens of thousands of family farmers across Australia that have been forced off the land in the last 30 years that the NFF has driven the free trade agenda. They have been merciless.

Page 150

Thats correct, not only don’t the NFF listen to its members it actually urges governments not to listen to them either.

To maintain their dominance the NFF have co opted governments to support their message and marginalized and isolated any individual farmer who have tried to speak out. These strategies have worked so well over the past 30 years that farmers being forced off the land because they cannot compete in the economic environment created by the agricultural elites of the NFF are looked upon by the industry as having failed.

“Get big or get out” has been the mantra they have created. What it should be is “Get as big as us or you’ll be forced out.”

Page 150

The NFF from the beginning has never listen to its members. It is an elite organization set up to represent the interests of the agricultural elites of this country to the great detriment of family farmers and rural communities across this nation.

END

Further expanding on my post The National Farmers Federation Revealed :

The office bearers of the NFF and the Commodity Councils are the delegates appointed by the the State Farming Organizations from the State Farming Organizations. ….. the office bearers are SFO delegates and the NFF is fully funded by the SFO’s.

So as a farmer if you are talking about the NFF you are actually talking about the SFO’s who “club” together as a “federation” to deal with issues that cross a single state border.

NFF Borad members – From the NFF web site:

The NFF Board comprises the NFF President and NFF Vice-President, along with five Directors, all elected by the Members’ Council. Two independent Directors may be appointed by the Board, as required

David Crombie President June 2006 to Current

2001 – Current Deputy Chairman Listed Property development Group FKP

2007 – Current – Director of the Australian Government Board of Export Finance Insurance Corporation

Current – Commissioner of Australian Government  Centre for International Agriculture Research

Current – President of the Queensland Rugby Union.

2000 – current Director GRM International (Packers Consolidated Group)

1998 – 2005 Chairman of Meat & Livestock Australia

1995 – 2000 Board member of Grainco

1994 – 2000 Managing Director of GRM (Consolidated Group)

Mr Crombie operates family properties, breeding and finishing cattle, as well as growing crops in southern Queensland.

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Charles Burke Vice-President June 2004 to Current

Current – Vice-President and Treasurer of AgForce Queensland

Current – Chairs the AgForce Rural Business Committee.

Mr Burke manages a family cattle property ‘Stanley House’, situated on Lake Somerset in the Brisbane Valley, South East Queensland.

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Bill Bray Director

2004 – 2008 President of the Cattle Council of Australia

Involved with the Victorian Farmers Federation for the past 25 years.

Mr Bray runs a mixed beef and sheep property in the Gippsland region

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Nick Keatinge Director

Nick has been involved with the NSW Farmers Association for 30 years.

Last year he was awarded the NSW Farmers’Association Medal of Honour for his long standing commitment to the ideals of the Association.

Nick, is a beef, lamb and wool producer on the South West Slopes of NSW.

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Andrew Broad President Victorian Farmers’ Federation

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Alf Cristaudo Chairman Canegrowers

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John Cotter President AgForce Queensland

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Charles Armstrong President NSW Farmers Association

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Members’ Council -

from the NFF’s web site

The Members’ Council is the supreme consultative forum for the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF).

Made up of all 16 state farming organisation and commodity council members, as well as Associate Members, of the NFF, members are appointed by their respective organisations.

The Members’ Council elects the Directors and officeholders (President and Vice-President) from nominations received from members, and determines:

* the key priorities for the NFF’s Strategic Plan;

* determines policy on issues or positions that are outside of the guidance previously agreed

Members council Represenatives

David Crombie – President, National Farmers’ Federation

Charles Burke – Vice-President, National Farmers’ Federation

Nick Keatinge – Director, National Farmers’ Federation

Bill Bray – Director, National Farmers’ Federation

John Cotter – President, AgForce Queensland

Wes Judd – President, Australian Dairy Farmers

Mark King – President, Australian Dried Fruits Association

Ian McIvor – Chair, Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council

Alf Cristaudo – Chair, Canegrowers

Greg Brown – President, Cattle Council of Australia

John McKillop – Representative, Corporate Agricultural Group

Joanne Grainger – Chair, Cotton Australia

Roy Chisholm – President, Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association

Charles Armstrong – President, NSW Farmers’ Association

Les Gordon – President, Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia

Kate Joseph – President, Sheepmeat Council of Australia

David Gatenby – President, Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association

Andrew Broad – President, Victorian Farmers Federation

Mike Norton – President, Western Australian Farmers Federation

Don Hamblin – President, WoolProducers

Many farmers believe the NFF to be a separate organization of which their State Farming Organization ( SFO’s) is a member. Indeed this is a misconception that the NFF and SFO’s and the Commodity Councils foster amongst farmers.

To be accurate it should be call the National Farming Organizations Federation or NFOF.

END

Have Your Say.

Today there has been great anger express among Australian farmers directed at the Australian Peak Farming lobby group, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) over its stand on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

To ensure that this anger is channeled in the right direction it is important to think clearly about who and what the National Farmers Federation really is.

Firstly the NFF is perceived by government and media as the undisputed voice of Australian farmers.

Many farmers believe the NFF to be a separate organization of which their State Farming Organization ( SFO’s) is a member. Indeed this is a misconception that the NFF and SFO’s and the Commodity Councils foster amongst farmers.

When the NFF was formed in 1979 it replaced a plethora of state and commodity based farmer groups with a single “federated” organization based in Canberra. As the term “federation” denotes it does not have individual members but rather has member organizations. The NFF member organizations are the State farming organizations and the Commodity Councils. Here is a list of the member organizations that make up what is called the NFF.

In effect the NFF has around 55,000 members through its State member organizations (to know accurately you have to know the exact membership of each SFO.) The Commodity Councils (CC’s) have no members only the SFO’s.

The NFF is in fact a “family” made up of the executive, the councils, the committees, the commodity councils and the SFO’s.

However the State Farming Organizations are the foundation of the NFF “family”. Without the State Farming organizations the NFF does not exist.

The NFF’s funding comes from the SFO’s who pay a contribution a fee in order to be state members of the “Federation”. The SFO’s also pay the “federation” a subscription fee for seats on the relevant Commodity Councils.

As stated before the SFO’s are the only members of the “federation” who have direct farmer members. The SFO’s fund the whole NFF “family” via voluntary subscriptions from farmers.

So when you refer to the NFF you are actually referring to an organizational grouping, the foundation of which is the State Farming Organizations.

The office bearers of the NFF and the Commodity Councils are the delegates appointed by the the State Farming Organizations – from the State Farming Organizations.

The State Farming Organizations therefore wield considerable influence and power over the “federation”, the office bearers are SFO delegates and the NFF is fully funded by the SFO’s.

So as a farmer if you are talking about the NFF you are actually talking about the SFO’s who “club” together as a “federation” to deal with issues that cross a single state border.

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This is the first article in a series – the Next will be the Role of the State Farm Bodies.

Agmates editor – Steve Truman

I don’t know about you but don’t you think this is ironic -- even a little sad really.

Monday the 22nd of June 2009.

Farmers’ congress in Brisbane

For the first time, the NFF -- formed in 1979 -- is bringing together farmers, agribusiness, agricultural teachers and students, Federal Government Ministers, senior departmental officials and leading international and national experts to discuss and debate major issues.

The major issue being discussed is Climate Change with the Keynote speakers.

• Greenhouse sceptic Professor Ian Plimer,

• CSIRO expert on climate adaptation Dr Andrew Ash

• Secretary of the federal government’s Department of Climate Change, Dr Martin Parkinson

Seems the NFF still can’t make up its mind if Global warming is really happening, why else would Professor Plimer be speaking. Also seems as if the NFF believes that it is happening and need the two government men to discuss how to best adapt to the governments CPRS.

Meanwhile on this very same day the NFF is in Brisbane discussing the pro’s and cons of Climate change the Labor Government is pushing to have its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme passed through the Senate. It is well documented that if the ETS is passed in its proposed form approx 25% of all of our farmers will become unviable.

So we have the NFF in Brisbane having a conference with school kids looking at how farmers might adapt to climate change and the governments CRPS, and we have the National Party in Canberra taking a stand for rural Australia saying No, No, No.

Is’nt that ironic? No -- Moronic is a better way to describe it.

Alanis Morissette -- Ironic

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END

Steve Truman -- Agmates Editor & Founder

Have Your Say!

The imminent collapse of the Grains Council of Australia after more than 70 years representing grain growers should be a red flag to all Farming organizations. From The Land -

In early 2007, soon after the release of the Cole Inquiry report into the scandal, WA Farmers Federation, followed by the NSW Farmers Association, resigned their membership over GCA’s policy moves away from supporting the single desk and for apparently not listening to members who wanted a single desk kept.

The Grains Council decision to defy its members wishes and support the abolition of the single desk has seen support from all quarters of the industry evaporate in the last year. ‘Good riddance’ and ‘they deserve everything they get’ were common themes expressed by Growers and Federal politicians that I spoke to today.

The demise of the Grains council reveals why support across the country is declining for all State Farming organizations and the National Farmers Federation (NFF).

Since the NFF was first formed in 1979 to be the peak farm lobby group it and by proxy the  State Farming Organizations and the Commodity groups have pursued a Free Trade Agenda at the detriment of our food and fibre producers. I realise that many involved in the farm organizations and many Politicians will disagree with that  statement, so please let me explain:

I was having a ‘robust’ discussion on this topic with a senior National Party person just the other day. As he was chronicling to me all the advantages of Australia pursuing the Free Trade agenda I asked him the following question:

Do you support the Rudd Labor Government and the Greens  contention that Australia should lead the world in cutting carbon emissions without any formal commitment to similar reduction from our major trading partners, USA, China, India?

His answer was of course not, we oppose that – that would be economic suicide.

My response to that was -

Exactly. Isn’t that precisely what we have done with Free Trade and our Agricultural Industries?

Australia (and New Zealand) have lead the world in Free Trade with our major trading partners, the USA, Japan and the EU, who whilst embracing Free Trade have always excluded their food producers from  any FTA’s.

David Trebeck

David Trebeck was the founding Deputy Director of the NFF. Trebeck is  credited with being the  father of the Australian Agriculture lobby groups Free Trade agenda by arguably one the  nations leading Free Trade architects, former federal liberal Politician John Hyde in his book “Dry – In defense of Economic Freedom”.

Trebeck and the NFF position on Free Trade then was as naive as Bob Brown and the Greens position on CO2 reductions  is today. The state of Australian Agriculture today is proof that believing  Australia can & should lead and the rest of the world will follow is naive at best, foolish at worst .

Thirty years on the NFF, State Farming Organizations and Commodity Councils still cling to their Free Trade  ideology, blind to the economic realities that ambush  our  food and fibre producers each day.

David Trebeck comments on the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with the USA in 2003 are revealing: From ABC’s The World Today March 2003:

Eleanor Hall: Earlier today I asked ACIL Consulting’s Executive Chairman, David Trebeck, why he’s so certain that a US free trade deal would be detrimental to Australia.

DAVID TREBECK: Well, free trade, Eleanor, we think is very much in Australia’s interests but bilateral free trade is not much good to us if two things happen. One is that it’s not free trade, and secondly, if all the benefits we get are those that come from diverting trade from other countries, such as Japan or China, to the US.

Now just to explain the first of those points. I think this is really a bit of a misnomer. We are not talking about free trade. Last year the US Congress put in place the most draconian protective subsidised arrangement ever for agriculture, affecting crucial exports for us like dairy, sugar and so on.

Anyone who thinks that this bilateral trade agreement is going to unwind those protective arrangements are whistling in the wind in my view.

Interesting that Trebeck of all people can see the reality, 6 years ago. Despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary the NFF and farm lobby groups are frozen in time clinging doggedly to a failed ideology .

Like Trebeck Australian Family Farmers  worked it out for themselves a long time ago and that is why support for all  farm Lobby groups is evaporating.

The Grains Council is the first lobby group to fold due a lack of grassroots support, but as long as farm lobby groups continue to champion Free Trade policies to the detriment of their members , it won’t be the last.

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END

Agmates Founder and Editor Steve Truman

Have Your Say!

QLD grain grower and Agmates member Rowell Walton writes:

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Rowell Walton

On Friday last our Federal Minister for agriculture Tony Burke asserted to the nations parliament that wheat growers were $30 dollars per tonne better off as a result of Labor joining with the Liberals and legislating out of existence Australian wheat growers single desk mechanism for the sale of export wheat.

In fact he was complimenting the Liberal party on its job, but what should be evident to all Australian’s is the philosophical similarity between the Liberals and Labor.

It should not be a surprise that Agriculture would bear the load of increasing deregulation and continued privatisation. Fred Hilmer, at the request of Keating in the nineties indicated the direction we would be taking, the national competition policy direction has been maintained through Labor and conservative governments from that time.

That the farmers chardonnay set the National Farmers Federation (NFF), have nurtured the process is something of an understatement. Their submissions are public and indicate an extremist free market direction rarely seen and certainly not reflecting the need of a rural community who exports just some 25% of its output.

Nevertheless their (NNF) loss of direction and removal from the mainstream farming community seems to be just deserts for failing their people and it brings me to the question of why Tony Burke would stand in the Australian parliament and assert wheat growers are $30.00 a tonne better off?

The Question  is Tony, where is your study, who did it and lets have a look at it.

No I haven’t said I do not believe you, but I am well used to lies emanating from Canberra, used to indoctrinate the less observant.  Your spin doctors may well think we will believe it if you just keep saying it over and over, but lets prove you have not misled the Australian parliament and direct us to the study, preferably peer reviewed.

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END

Have Your Say!

Why is the USA Farm sector lobby so powerful and the Australian Farm lobby sector so weak ?

As the US Cap-and-Trade legislation works its way through the USA congress and Senate this is what the US media is saying:

Cap-and-trade may hinge on farm vote

If Democrats are serious about enacting controls on greenhouse gases, they may have to win over farmers first.

Democrats control the House 256-178, but many of their newest, most politically vulnerable members are from rural areas, and farm groups are unhappy with key aspects of the legislation.

Some other farm groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, have simply rejected the bill, saying it would increase production costs excessively.

Farm groups want to ensure that growers will benefit from a cap-and-trade system.

Environmentalists may have to decide whether the bill they can get through Congress – and past the farm lobby – is a bill worth having.

It is an understatement to say I was shocked to read that. On the Eve of the Australian Emissions Trading Scheme being pushed through the Australian Parliament here from today’s Australian Newspaper is what the Australian media is saying:

Rural income to be cut by a quarter

FARMERS could lose almost a quarter of their income under the emissions trading scheme, with beef and sheep producers hardest hit, according to a government report released yesterday.

Agriculture will be exempt from the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until at least 2015, but the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics report on the impact of emissions trading on farm production will entrench Nationals apposition.

ABARE director Phillip Glyde says “agriculture will be affected by the introduction of the CPRS in 2011 through increases in input costs”.

The Australian governments own economic forecaster is predicting:

• Beef production will be wiped out with returns expected to drop by 22 percent.

• Wool, mutton and lambs are also set to take a whopping 17 percent cut to their income.

• Grain growers income is predicted to fall by 14.5 percent.

• The dairy industry, already struggling because of low export prices will lose another 1.9 percent.

That is a catastrophe for Australian Agriculture and rural & regional communities.  The Federal agriculture minister  Tony Burke is not worried, here is what he had to say about the plight of those he represents:

“We believe farmers are innovative and constantly adapting to make their produce as competitive as possible.

That is why we reject any projections that assume farmers won’t adapt.”

That is an amazing statement. The only adaption to those sort of cuts in annual income is ‘out the back door’ adaption.

The results of the ABARE modelling should not come as a surprise. Back on 5th of July last year I wrote an article in which I quoted then President of AgForce Peter Kenny and current cheif of the New South Wales Farmers Federation Jock Laurie :

Emissions Trading Scheme Will Kill Family Farms

Then on the  18th of September an article that quoted both the former head of ABARE Brian Fisher and the current head Phillip Glyde:

ABARE Chiefs Warn Australian Agriculture is Doomed Under Emissions Trading Scheme

Back to my question. Why is it that our farm lobby groups in Australia have no influence over legislation that will decimate Australian Agriculture?

The answer to that is to long to go into here, but I’ll give you a clue. As the articles I’ve linked to show the Presidents of the SFO’s were clear on the impacts of an ETS on Australian farmers at least 12 months ago. Have a look at their web sites and see what action they are taking or have taken. Now I know you’d expect it to be plastered all over their sites.

Here are the links -have a look, it will shock you.

QLD – AgForce – NSW Farmers – Victorian Farmers – Tasmanian Farmer – South Australian Farmers Federation (No site currently under development) – WAFarmers – Pastoralist & Graziers WA -  Northern Territory Cattlemans Assoc

Thats eight peak farmer organizations and its not mentioned on any one site. So we turn to the farmer peak body – the National Farmers Federation.

If you dig through the site you’ll see that in the last 12 months the NFF made a 46 page submission to the governments ETS Green paper on the 10th of September 2008 and then an 11 page submission to the Senate inquiry on the 25th of March 2009. Thats it.

Is it any wonder Australian Farmers and rural communities are getting shafted by the ETS legislation. We don’t have agr-political Lobby groups in Australia we have country clubs. Enough said.

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Agmates Founder & Editor Steve Truman

END

Have Your Say!

Northern NSW Farmer and Australian Beef Association, Chairman, Brad Bellinger writes:

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Our members are yet again disgusted with the National Farmers Federation (NFF) and Cattle Council of Australia (CCA). This time it is their support for the Rudd Government’s insane Emissions Trading Scheme.

NFF & CCA addressing a conference of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) in Denmark this week, illustrates their compliance.

They are once again “selling out” Australia’s producers to the hand that feeds their personal agro-political ambitions. They should be saying “No’, ‘No’, ‘No’, to a Trading Scheme instead of having their hands out to funding from the Government to peddle this flawed nonsense.

The Copenhagen Talkfest is the regurgitating of seriously defective concerns addressed by equally flawed and questionable motions.

Senators Joyce, Boswell, Williams and Nash are the only Federal politicians showing any commonsense. An Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) or as Barnaby Joyce calls it (Employment Termination Scheme) is a means of transferring money from the public to the Corporate end of town. If the ETS is brought in, it will be the final nail in the coffin for Australia’s struggling rural sector.

It was appropriate that the talkfest was held in Copenhagen – home of Hans Christian Andersen and his classic story “The Emperor’s New Clothes‘.

Thinking Australians would like to have insisted that Professor Ian Plimer have been invited to have addressed the gathering and explain why their deliberations are naked on historic and scientific facts that record the World’s ever changing climate.

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END

Have Your Say!

Australia’s trade minister Simon Crean is crowing about the new Free trade deal he has just signed Australia up to.

AUSTRALIA will open its markets completely to imports from the 10 ASEAN countries, but will not get full access to their markets under a free trade agreement signed in Thailand last night.

Under a deal Trade Minister Simon Crean said was bigger than the deal with the US, indeed “the largest FTA Australia has ever signed”

Well done Simon. Every Australian & New Zealand farmer and manufacturer can now compete on a level playing field with farmers and manufacturers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

Lets see last time I looked all except Singapore are 3rd world nations who pay their workers what AU$2 day. In Australia we pay our workers $200 a day with your government about to increase that by up to 20% with your new industrial relations reforms.

We should have no trouble competing with their food producers or manufacturers.

But hang on – Simon must have won us some advantages with his honed and tough negotiating skills.

Australia already has free trade with Singapore. But the other nine Asian countries will retain some barriers in areas including dairy products, cars, and other machinery to protect producers.

Minister Crean crows:

“Trade barriers are coming down in the region,”

And he is right - ours – get ready to see a flood of cheap food, cars, and retail junk in Australian and New Zealand supermarkets and shopping malls.

“Our challenge to Australian business and exporters is to look to South-East Asia to take advantage of the new opportunities.

This is an extremely strong signal to the rest of the world that the Asian region remains committed to pursuing economic growth, exports and jobs to help drive the economic recovery.”

Oh thats great – so Mr Crean, lets now look to South-East Asia to export all of our jobs, as we saw this week with Pacific Brands (Bonds) sacking 1,850 Australian workers and closing 7 factories to move its operation to China.

Lets look to South-East Asia to import all of our fruit and vegetables while Australian farmers produce rots in the paddock or on the tree because we can’t compete with the flood of cheap imports.

Simon, just tell us what we can produce on a huge scale here that those countries can afford to buy, is it rice (no), is it wheat (no), is it beef (no), is it lamb (no), is it dairy (yes – oh but its no included in the deal) well then maybe it’s Kangaroo?

Unfortunately our farmers can’t move their farm production to South East Asia, because unlike Australia those countries have severe restrictions on foreigners owning land in their countries.

Well done Simon, another stake in the heart of all Australian food producers and manufacturers.

Don’t you love Free Trade. Well these industry groups do:

Business groups hailed the agreement. The Business Council, National Farmers Federation, Minerals Council, Australian Industry Group, and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry united in support, although the NFF regretted the exclusions.

Thats right folks – National Farmers Federations supports the deal, with some regrets. They are a pathetic joke.

*****

Have your say!

Chinese food imports into Australia have exploded in the last 3 years.

Mega tonnages of Chinese produce have flooded Australian shores in the past six months, nudging Australian farmers off local supermarket shelves and raising fresh concerns about food safety.

For example – in just the last six months we have imported:

250 tonnes of fresh or chilled garlic, 67t of broccoli, 400kg of flour, more than 38t of preserved tomatoes, 1085t of various types of peanuts and 160,000 litres of apple juice.

Of course this will be no surprise the Federal politicians and rural lobby groups like the National Farmers Federation. This is exactly the result they’d expected from the Free Trade policy that they all fiercely advocate.

Supporting Chinese farmers who pay their workers $8 a day and have very lax food safety regulations whilst our own farmers who can’t compete  go broke.

I’d suggest while our Federal politicians and the peak farm groups are chasing their Free Trade folly they should apply to the UN to have Australian family farmers listed on world endangered species registrar.

Have your say.