Ben Bennett re-elected Australian Dairy Farmers president

Southwest Victoria’s Ben Bennett has been re-elected Australian Dairy Farmers president, following a tough campaign.

Ben Bennett has been re-elected as Australian Dairy Farmers president, which he says proves he has a “strong grassroots mandate into the new year”.

The southwest Victorian farmer was re-elected unopposed to the presidency for a two-year term with fellow incumbent directors David Beca and Heath Cook also getting re-endorsed.

The only other candidate seeking election — Tasmanian farmer Andrew Aldridge — failed to claim a spot on the board.

“Thanks to Andrew Aldridge for contesting the ballot — the democratic process needs a strong contest and it was good for all candidates to get involved to seek a popular mandate from farmers,” Mr Bennett said.

“I travelled extensively as part of my campaign and the message I heard from farmers is they want us to get on with the job. There’s now a renewed grassroots mandate to ensure dairy farmer voices are heard — that we get a fairer deal from supermarkets and processors.”

Australian Dairy Farmers re-elected president Ben Bennett.

In its final sitting week of the year, the federal government this week introduced its new food and grocery code of conduct to parliament.

Under the proposed legislation, the code is mandatory and supermarkets could face multimillion-dollar fines for breaching it.

“As long as this code has teeth, we need a stronger watchdog because supermarkets need to kept accountable, whether that’s their responsibilities to dairy and other agricultural sectors or the consumer,” he said.

Last week, a one-page missive circulated with an ADF letterhead, outlining the assessment by its independent electoral panel of the three candidates standing for ADF business director positions.

While Mr Aldridge and NSW farmer Heath Cook were both assessed as “eligible and suitable,” Mr Bennett was marked as being “eligible but not suitable” for re-election.

Responding to the letter, Mr Bennett said many farmers had welcomed his forthright approach to dairy advocacy.

“I’ve always been straight forward. I tell it like it is about the dairy industry and some clearly don’t like that,” the Pomborneit farmer said.

Mr Aldridge and Mr Cook have been contacted by The Weekly Times for comment.

ADF chief executive Stephen Sheridan congratulated the three returning directors.

“David Beca returns once more as an independent director and Heath Cook and Ben Bennett as business directors,” Mr Sheridan said.

“I thank Andrew Aldridge for contesting the board vacancies at today’s AGM, as well as for his time and commitment as a Policy Advisory Group chair and a national councillor.

“On behalf of ADF, I look forward to a constructive year ahead with some significant priorities already on the cards, including a review of the Dairy Code of Conduct and a federal government election.”