Outgoing TFGA CEO Jan Davis tells us why Tassie’s farmers are tops

WE sit down with outgoing TFGA CEO Jan Davis to get her views on the rural community in the state.

Portraits of Jan Davis former CEO Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association.

Why are you stepping down?

My contract has come to an end and it seemed like a good time to look at my future and the future of the organisation.

You never get to the stage where you think you’ve done everything you’ve set out to do. The next push was quite a big one and whether I was the right one to make that commitment for that period of time was more my consideration.

We’ve done a lot of things in the five years I’ve been there. It’s one of those J-curve things, if you go back to Paul Keating — it was a big step up. The things I was brought in to achieve we have largely achieved.

What have you have achieved in the past five years?

There were a number of things that I wanted to look at and I was brought in to do.

The first one was to get us a public profile that reflected the importance of agriculture in Tasmania. I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done to achieve that.

The second one was to settle the organisation down — we needed a bit of stability and that’s been another thing that I’ve worked hard at.

The third one was to take us through a period of significant change, not just for our organisation, but agricultural associations across Australia. And that is finding a way to become sustainable in a changing market place, and we’ve done a lot of work on that too.

What are you most proud of?

I’d have to say the achievement of the public profile, the recognition of how important agriculture is in Tasmania.

What has been the biggest frustration?

It has to be how hard it is to get even simple things changed in Tasmania — the inertia, I think, in the system. In what should be a relatively easy place to get change, everything’s so hard. We struggle at every level to drive change I believe.

Is that because of processes or attitudes?

I think it’s both. In Tassie our strengths are often our weaknesses. One of our strengths is we’ve become quite self-reliant and resilient because we’ve been focused on what we do rather than be driven by what other people do. That’s a strength, but it also means that in some cases — and I think our political system in terms of policy engagement is one of them — it’s also a shortfall. It means we seem to have to reinvent every wheel known to humanity rather than learn from what other people have done.

What is the most significant change to Tasmanian agriculture during your time in the job?

Irrigation is Tasmania’s Snowy Mountain Scheme. This is the biggest game-changer that you could possibly imagine. It’s a confidence-booster for our farmers.

We suffered in the drought in the 2005-10 period, which many Tasmanian farmers had never seen before, and the impact of that was psychologically quite scarring on them.

Irrigation has done a number of things. It has allowed them to droughtproof and that’s really important because it’s a confidence thing. It is also allowing us to put land into different forms of production and that’s important too.

We’ve got dairies going down into the Midlands where we’ve never seen that before. We’ve got the ability to go into more and more covered cropping and that’s really important too. It also allows people to do more of the same things they’ve done before but better and with more confidence. It’s opened up a lot of new doors.

What is Tasmania’s biggest opportunity in agriculture in the next five years?

Our opportunity is to grow our industry exponentially. The opportunities for Tasmania in the next 10 years are boundless. We really are only going to be limited by the fact that we’re such a high-cost production centre and with the current Government’s commitment to look at regulation that makes that cost unnecessarily high, we’ll be able to manage that a bit better.

What is its biggest challenge?

It’s the fact that we’re such a high-cost production base and the main factor in that is the freight issue. It’s not the only one, but it’s the main factor.

The fact that we’ve got so much awareness of the reality of the issue now gives us the chance to look at making some progress. Rod Bender, (manager of Norske Skog) has said this is the first time he can remember that all industry sectors have come out and said this is our highest priority. We’ve got such focus on it, we really need to capitalise on that.

How should we be thinking about China when it comes to our agriculture?

China is a great opportunity for us. They’re ready to invest and we clearly need investment if we’re going to take these next steps we need to take. They’re keen on through-chain partnerships and that’s a really important thing for Tasmanian farmers.

We have to move the farm further up the value chain, cut out some of the middle men so that the farmers can make a living, but also be more responsive to what their customers want. The opportunity to have those partnerships with the Chinese is important to us.

The other thing it will drive us to do is to work better together because the scale of the demand in China is going to be so huge. Even to get 0.001 per cent is going to take a lot of working together.

How concerned should Australians be about foreign ownership of farms?

Not at all. Farms are an amazing thing — you can’t actually pack them up in a suitcase and take them away. It doesn’t matter who owns them — it matters that we have them and that they’re contributing to our overall productivity and the growth of the industry in Tasmania.

Aust-­ralian agriculture has been built off the back of foreign investment — we’ve had the Japanese, we’ve had the Americans, you go back far enough we’ve had the British, they were foreign too. So this is not new. What it reflects is the lack of appreciation Australians have for their agriculture industry and the fact that other people realise that food security is a big issue.

If Australians want to invest, we welcome their money. It’s very unreasonable for all of the people who aren’t owners of farmland thinking they can tell farmers what they should and shouldn’t do.

If you wanted to sell your house, you’d take the highest offer, wouldn’t you? Why should a farmer be held to any different standard? If the Australian community is so interested, there’s a really easy answer — get the cheque books out.

How did someone from a non-farming background end up so passionate about farming?

I’m a city girl born and bred. I hadn’t been on a farm until I was over 30.

I came to agriculture through a sideways approach. I got interested in horticulture, I’m a keen gardener. I went off and did a horticulture course and through a range of steps ended up running the nursery industry association. From nurseries I just sideways progressed into agriculture.

I’ve become so passionate about it because the people in farming are just amazing — they’re underrated, unnoticed, quiet people with their heads down and their bums up that just get on with the job.

When you’re as lucky as I am to have travelled around the world and seen agriculture and people across the world, you get to see just how amazing our farmers are.

And if they’re not going to speak up for themselves, somebody has to do it. I just believe it’s so important that those of us that benefit from the work that farmers do — that’s all of us that eat — appreciate how important their work is and how amazing the job is that they do.

How significant is it that you were the first woman in the role?

I didn’t think it was significant, but everybody else did. I think some people were probably taken by surprise, but I think it’s all about doing your job passionately and that doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female or young or old or local or not, it’s about passion and commitment I think.

But have there been barriers because you are a woman?

Ten years ago I’d have probably said no. But I guess in hindsight most of that’s because I’m just so bloody-minded, I just trample over the top of it and don’t notice it anyway. Not significantly, but I think it’s the unexpected that really creates barriers and that comes from a whole bunch of characteristics, not just gender.

Did you empathise with Australia’s first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her view that gender explains some but not all barriers?

Absolutely. I would support that comment 100 per cent. It’s part of it but it’s not all of it. In my case it was people who thought you had to be a local, people who thought you had to be a farmer, all of those expectations that people bring to conversations.

As the former prime minister said, it’s up to you to do your best and put gender aside.

Would you ever consider entering politics?

I’m a person who never says never to anything because I think you have to keep your blinkers off.

Is it my intent to enter politics? At this stage, no. I’m not a very good politician. You have to be party-aligned to be a common or garden variety politician that operates in our system and you have to be wedded to a party position. And I can’t do that. To me the policy is the issue and I would support whatever I felt to be an appropriate policy, whether or not it were a party position.

The thought of anybody locking me a in a room and getting me to behave myself is not one that I think most people would contemplate.

Could you run as an independent?

I’m not quite sure in this day and age how much value independents bring within the Lower House environment. Certainly our Upper House here does a very good job. We’ve got a very strong bunch of independents there that work a system in the Upper House here that is as successful as any I’ve seen anywhere. Who knows what the future will bring?

So you’d consider the Legislative Council as some people have suggested?

It’s really interesting — all these people that I’ve never met that have this very clear view of what I’m going to be doing.

I can honestly say that at this point of time I have absolutely no plans for the future and I’m sitting here waiting to see what the universe will offer.

You must have had offers?

In my time I’ve been approached by every party except the Greens. So it’s not for lack of offers. I have steadfastly held to my position that I’m not a politician. I think I can make a better contribution doing other things.

City or country — where would you prefer to be?

Where I live now is a perfect meld of both. I live at Perth — I’ve got half an acre which is a fair-sized block for me, I can see sheep and I’m 15 minutes from town. How lucky am I?

I’ve done my time in the big city and lived in places like Balmain in Sydney which are very inner city. Not my style any more. I think people’s expectations and comforts change as they move through their life and as they change. I really enjoyed living in the inner city when I was there but would I go back there? No.

Do you do any farming on your block?

I’ve got a vegetable garden and a big berry plot.

I’m working on my orchard at the moment, I’m just about to plant it.

I have a cat and a dog but no other critters at the moment though I’m working on chooks. I’m not a farmer and I don’t pretend to be one.

What’s next, and will it be in Tasmania?

I am so passionately a Tasmania supporter now. My earnest wish is to find something that I can make a contribution doing here and I will do my utmost to do that.

Have you been offered jobs?

No, I’m on holidays. I’m not even really talking to anybody at the moment. It’s been a pretty full-on five years, I haven’t had a decent holiday for quite some time and I need some headspace.

In a week or so I’ll think about what I want to do and I’ll put my head up.

My preference is to not only stay in Tassie but to stay right where I am. This is my 42nd house and I promised myself I wasn’t going to move again so that’s my hope.

I’ve lived in five states and moved around quite a bit and this is the first place in a long time I’ve really felt settled and comfortable in that I’m making a contribution that I enjoy and I hope others value. I have no plan to go anywhere else.