A new independent body aspiring to be a representative force for Australian farmers and rural communities and borne out of "utter frustration" with the current advocacy model and politicians who "cast them into the wilderness again and again" has arrived on the scene.
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Farming Communities Australia may have received more than 100 applications in response to a recently placed advertisement for a chief executive officer but the only other markers to its existence is a logo and a June 7 submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024.
The submission was signed off by freshly-appointed FCA chair and Perth-based agribusiness specialist Adrian Vis.
ACM Agri exclusively reported in March that a fledgling organisation was taking shape but few concrete details were available at the time.
Other high-profile agricultural industry names behind the new agri-political organisation are immediate past-chair of the Seafood Industry Association Chauncey Hammond, Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia president Tony Seabrook and Michael Thompson, owner of Mundabullangana station, about 1600 kilometres north of Perth.
According to its CEO advertisement, FCA "is a newly formed organisation with the objective of identifying key issues impacting Australian farming and the Australian agricultural resource sector".
"The organisation will act as an independent representative body that will promote, protect and advance the development of the Australian agricultural sector and farming communities," the notice said.
It further stated that the CEO would be the organisation's media spokesperson in promoting the best interests of farmers and associated communities, as well as engaging with government at all levels.
THE FRAMEWORK
Farming Communities Australia was registered with the Australian Securities and Investment Corporation on May 10 to a NSW address at Mossman by Mr Hammond.
While Farming Communities Australia Limited was registered with ASIC three days later to an address in West Leederville, three kilometres northwest of the Perth CBD.
Organisers had hoped the FCA would be launched as an overarching organisation and that the current #KeeptheSheep campaign would operate under its wing.
However, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt's snap announcement of the transition package and proposed end date of May 1, 2028, for the live sheep by sea export trade days before last month's budget caught organisers by surprise with attention needing to be switched to a focused campaign against the policy.
Mr Seabrook said while it was premature to detail any solid immediate plans for the organisation before a CEO was appointed "we have goals and objectives".
The group is also still to finalise a constitution.
"You put a huge burden on yourself to try to succeed by jumping too quickly without doing the legwork first," he said.
"To do things properly you need to have all the governance in place and everything done in such a way so that when you do approach people to make a contribution they need to feel that it has been well thought out and the money will be used for what they expect it to be used for.
"That will give us a much greater chance of success, this is going ahead."
Funding will be "absolutely critical" to help the group gather momentum with its initial goal of collecting the $15 to $20 million believed to be needed to build and kick start the operation.
A collection point being considered is turning to commodity groups to tip in a nominal amount per head of sheep or cattle or tonne of grain produced before approaching corporate investors to cover the shortfall.
The group is also currently preparing single page issue statements across a range of national topics impacting the agriculture industry and regional communities too big for state farming organisations and commodity groups to tackle by themselves.
The list is yet to be finalised but includes farm insurance, diesel fuel excise, road maintenance, stamp duty, payroll tax, revamped industrial relations laws and the capacity to bring in overseas labour on a seasonal basis, telecommunication coverage, regional healthcare and education shortfalls, heavy vehicle licensing charges and issues around increasing green tape, including the application of agricultural chemicals.
A NEW ADVOCACY
Mr Seabrook said farming communities around Australia "are done, absolutely and utterly done" with political parties that have "cast them into the wilderness again and again and again".
"The appetite is huge to put together an organisation with the objective of getting more of the attention of politicians to address all of the issues that we are confronted with in regional Australia," he said.
"The genesis of this new body is being borne out of the utter frustration at politicians and so far the inability of those bodies that represent agriculture today to achieve the outcomes that are required."
Other key FCA concerns are local manufacturing, how governments consult with farm and community groups on the impacts of proposed legislation and competition policy.
"We value things so little. Milk was $1 a litre a few years ago but bottled water was being sold for much more at the same time," Mr Seabrook said.
"You cannot ban people selling bottled water but you can certainly address the reasons around why the poor dairy farmer is no longer competitive."
The Farming Communities Australia name first emerged in early 2023 when Mr Thompson spoke about registering the name. However, the registration lapsed or was cancelled and there had been no mention of FCA until the inquiry submission was published by the committee.
Mr Thompson, who lost business due to the Gillard Government's live cattle ban in 2011, said in 2023 that his motivation was tied to concern over the imminent ban on live sheep exports although he does not run sheep.
However, ambitions for the organisation have since grown.
FCA has also reappeared at a time when the agricultural industry's membership and advocacy model is under intense scrutiny.
The National Farmers Federation members' council agreed last month to review evidence and data around the national advocacy framework and business model and continue to discuss "the way forward" in making changes where necessary to enhance farmer and producer representation.
However, a bomb was dropped two weeks later when the Victorian Farmers' Federation sensationally quit seven commodity groups and ostensibly pressed fast-forward on that review for the industry, VFF president Emma Germano has been a vocal proponent for a shake-up of the current advocacy arrangement for several years.
It is believed Mr Hammond, a lawyer who operates his own management consulting firm, is helping to set the FCA's advocacy agenda.
The former chair of Fishing Families WA is perhaps best known for the "carefully and thoroughly planned" 2019-2020 campaign to stop WA's McGowan Government's plans to nationalise part of the state's rock lobster fishery and raise the catch quota to an unsustainable level.
Those close to the situation said he was "very, very good" at not making the issue a crayfisherman's problem but a wider community problem.
Then bringing the community along with the family fisher's that were an embedded part of the crayfish industry, "it was that community support that carried the day for him".
