Australian Dairy Plan: Former World Bank economist Ian Morris has a plan for dairy

From Myanmar, Afghanistan and East Timor to the family dairy farm in Cobden, this former World Bank economist has a plan for dairy.

world away: Ian Morris is a former World Bank economist, pictured at his Cobden dairy farm. Picture: Chloe Smith

IN HIS role with the World Bank, Ian Morris has worked in many geopolitical hotspots — Myanmar, Afghanistan, East Timor.

The economic troubleshooter spent 15 years reshaping Papua New Guinea and has managed a US$10 billion reform program in Pakistan.

“I’ve worked in a lot of post-conflict and disaster zones — working out the costs of the losses of wars and natural disasters,” Mr Morris said.

Some wags would suggest it’s the perfect preparation to tackle the post-price clawback Australian dairy industry.

Now, after a career of fiscally-focused globe-trotting, he’s back where he started — on the family farm at Cobden that he co-manages with brother Duncan Morris.

“I’ve had an extraordinary career. If you asked the young boy, back in 1966, he wouldn’t have believed you. That was the year when I was in the middle of high school and my father took me to the Cobden Civic Hall, which was brand new then, and there was a UN program on how to feed the world — that was the kernel (of my career ambition). The people who ran that program would have no idea of the impact that had on everything I did afterwards.”

That’s not to say the then Cobden teenager didn’t contemplate a life on the land.

“I went off the university. My father had a car accident and couldn’t run the farm, the one that we’re on now. I wanted to not go to uni and (instead) run the farm and he said ‘No — you go off to university, the farm will still be here in three years if you want it’.”

Instead of a three-year interlude from agriculture, it was more like a four-decade hiatus.

While the farm remained, the industry has radically altered since its 1960s salad days.

Mr Morris has applied his World Bank expertise to the Australian Dairy Plan — writing a submission to the plan taskforce earlier this year.

MORE: IAN MORRIS’S OPINION ON DAIRY PLAN

While he’s quick to point out that he’s not an agricultural economist, Mr Morris said the recently-released plan set several infeasible targets and presented a one-size-fits-all approach that did little to acknowledge regional differences.

“In the context of the Australian Dairy Plan, I’ve done a lot of strategic planning professionally, and all I’m doing is applying those techniques to another industry — of which I’m involved in at a micro level,” he said.

MORE

BASHING DAIRY PROCESSORS IS BASELESS

FONTERRA, BEGA AND SAPUTO PAY NO LEVIES TO HELP FUND DAIRY AUSTRALIA