Dairy farmers fight for rights: Petition Senate on levy poll

Dairy farmers’ “democratic right to express their views” must be respected in the March levy poll, say industry leaders.

Petitioner: South West Victorian dairy leader Bernie Free is leading a push to petition the Senate to demand farmers have the right to vote for a full range of levy rate options in the March poll.

Dairy farmers have launched a petition calling on Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud to grant them the right to vote for a reduction in the mandatory levy they pay their peak research, development and marketing body.

Victorian Winslow farmer Bernie Free drafted the petition, which ask the Mr Littleproud to: “immediately ask the Federal Agriculture Minister to demand the Dairy Levy Poll Advisory Committee resubmits a full range of voting options in the upcoming Poll including reducing the levy and having no levy at all”.

Senator Pauline Hanson has agreed to table in Parliament, once signatures have been collected.

As it stands an advisory committee has recommended to Mr Littleproud that farmers only be offered the right to vote for the maintenance or increases in the current 2.8683 cents a kilogram levy on butterfat and 6.9914c/kg protein they pay to Dairy Australia.

But Mr Free, who is starting to gain support from other Victorian and interstate farmers, said “I initiated the petition because I want dairy farmers to have the full set of options to vote on”.

He said a lot of submissions to the Dairy Levy Poll Advisory Committee “had asked for some sort of reduction”, which had been ignored.

The petition already has the backing of the Farmer Power lobby group and NSW Dairy Connect, whose president Graham Forbes said it was vital farmers “democratic right to express their views” was respected by offering them a full range of voting options.

Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation president Brian Tessmann said his board had not formed a position on the poll options, but personally “I think all dairy farmers views need to be reflected.

“I’ve had quite a few people express their concerns to me, asking why there weren’t other options.”

United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Paul Mumford would not be drawn on whether an option to reduce the levy should be included in the poll at this time.

But South Australian Dairyfarmers’ Association president John Hunt said he trusted the LPAC had come to the right decision and there was no point offering “a token decrease”.

“The whole thing pisses me off that a minority of farmers who are wankers don’t even know what DA does,” Mr Hunt said.

The electronic version of the Senate petition that can be signed online, is due out later this week.

The petition can be found here.