Australian Dairy Farmer election results revelaed

The vote count from the Australian Dairy Farmers elections is out, showing the old guard did not fare well.

Dairy farmers have voted for change at the top. Picture: File

The count from the recent Australia Dairy Farmers’ board elections is out, showing a major swing against what has been branded the old “elite”.

Election results obtained by The Weekly Times show long-time leaders in the dairy industry struggled to recruit the numbers needed to gain board positions, after years of what many farmers saw as their peak body kowtowing to processors – from opposing the mandatory dairy code to allowing processors to sit on the Dairy Australia board while making no financial contributions.

Incoming board member and Pomborneit dairy farmer Ben Bennett said there had been a “seismic change” in the ADF board membership.

“I think I got the protest vote in all honesty,” he said, which also led to the election of NSW Dorrigo farmer and NORCO dairy co-operative director Heath Cook.
But ultimately Mr Bennett said it was up to grassroots dairy farmers to initiate change.

“All I can do is hold the door open,” he said. “It has to be a team effort, ‘cause I’m not here to replace one group of elites with another.”

Mr Cook said he and Ben “ran a campaign for change”, which was what the majority of ADF members wanted.

All up Mr Bennett gained 192 votes of support and 85 against, while the result for Mr Cook was much closer with 145 in support and 135 against.

The results also showed:

FORMER United Dairyfarmers of Victoria vice-president John Versteden, who sat on the ADF National Council from 2014 to November 2017 and then the board until Nov 2020, failed in his latest bid to regain a seat, gaining 111 votes of support, but 170 against him.

FORMER Australian Dairy Industry Council sustainability task-force chairman Dary Hoey, who also sat on the recent Dairy Levy Poll Advisory Committee that recommended farmers not be given the option to cut their DA levies, gained 49 votes in support of him getting an ADF board position, but 231 opposed.

FORMER politician and SA dairy farmer Robert Brokenshire received 47 votes of support, 224 against.

NSW Farmers Association Dairy Farmers Committee chairman Colin Thompson received 69 votes of support, 205 against.

The new ADF board now consists of South Australian Rick Gladigau as president, plus Brian Tessmann from Queensland, Mr Bennett, Mr Cook and SA lawyer Andreas Clark.