Cattle Australia needs two more directors

The nation’s grass-fed cattle peak body needs two new directors and nominations close soon.

Cattle producers have less than a week to put their hands up to be part of the grass-fed

industry’s representative body.

Nominations for two board directors for Cattle Australia close next Monday, one of which must come from southern Australia and one from the north.

Cattle Australia chief executive officer Dr Chris Parker said the organisation had “communicated widely with members and levy payers about how they can participate in the election process”.

Cattle Australia chief executive officer Dr Chris Parker

“CA has been speaking with a number of interested parties,” he said.

The elections will signal another step forward for the organisation, which differs from its predecessor, the Cattle Council of Australia, in that directors are elected rather than appointed through state farming organisations.

Dr Parker said the new format had provided a “direct line of sight for levy payers” and direct input into policy formulation.

And setting up a directly-elected representative body that could represent all levy paying cattle producers had been a major achievement.

“It has resulted in increased grass-fed levy payers’ engagement with their national peak body,” Dr Parker said.

“CA engages with members to provide a united voice on national industry issues, to solve emerging industry issues and advocate with contemporary science and farming knowledge.”

He cited the organisations work on the biosecurity levy as a key win.

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Cattle Australia’s work on the biosecurity levy is considered by the organisation as one of its big wins.

The Biosecurity Protection Levy has not been implemented, in large part thanks to CA’s strong advocacy and our position on the Sustainable Biosecurity Funding Panel,” Dr Parker said.

CA had also achieved bipartisan political support calling for the delay implementation of the EU’s Deforestation Regulation.

“CA’s policy and advocacy work has delivered a clear set of definitions for understanding deforestation in the Australian land management context and the legislative frameworks in which the Australian beef industry operates in order to manage our environment sustainably,” he said.

Dr Parker said the work with deforestation showed that CA was “the industry body of choice for policy decision making by government”.

CA is funded by paid voting members, sponsorship, service level agreements, as well as a contribution from the Red Meat Advisory Council money. It is a member of the National Farmers Federation and Dr Parker said it would continue this membership.

Nominations for CA close at 11pm on September 30.