MLA in cross hairs of new chair of Cattle Australia

The head of Cattle Australia has outlined his list of priorities, including improved accountability for levy payers and monitoring MLA spending.

Improving accountability for levy payers and monitoring how their money is spent by Meat and Livestock Australia have been listed among the priorities for Australia’s new cattle boss.

Garry Edwards, the founder and managing director of the AAM group, which according to its promotions has “$1 billion invested in beef cattle, lamb and wool sheep, cropping, poultry, and sustainably-sourced timber supply chains across 32 sites in four states and territories”, recently took over the presidency of Cattle Australia from fellow northern cattle producer and founding president David Foote.

Mr Edwards told The Weekly Times more must be done for cattle producers.

“There is definitely room for improvement for Meat and Livestock Australia in terms of increased engagement with peak industry bodies on setting annual and medium-term priorities,” Mr Edwards said.

Cattle Australia president Garry Edwards

That includes “meaningful transparency” on funding allocations, he said.

“I would like to see more of the R & D activities aligned with greater producer engagement and a simplified assessment, review and approval process that provides producers wishing to recommend initiatives greater engagement.”

Mr Edwards said he was also keen to educate producers about what Meat and Livestock Australia couldn’t do – and that is undertake advocacy. “This is probably the single greatest misconception with cattle producers across the country,” said Mr Edwards, who took over after Mr Foote relinquished the role earlier this month.

“CA is on a mission to deliver in its commitment to be the most powerful voice for the levy-paying grass-fed cattle producers of Australia,” Mr Edwards said.

Mr Edwards said he wanted the broader community to know just how important the beef industry is, and how much work it has done to get it to where it is now.

“Our industry’s social licence for what we do has been won through hard work … and it is time for this hard work to be respectively acknowledged,” Mr Edwards said.

“I would like to see our industry become more strategic on how we engage with the broader consumer base in urban Australia, in relation to production systems that underpin the incredible high quality proteins that we naturally produce.”

And after a rough year with a dramatic slump in cattle prices, Mr Edwards said he was optimistic of better times ahead. “It has been encouraging to see prices have been forecast to continue to trend higher in the fist half of this year, due to strong demand from export markets,” he said.