NSW Farmers to quit NFF

New South Wales’ peak farmer lobby group has handed its resignation to the National Farmers’ Federation, The Weekly Times understands.

New South Wales’ peak farmer lobby group has handed its resignation to the National Farmers’ Federation, The Weekly Times understands.

It is believed NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin wrote to the NFF on Monday informing the national farming advocacy group that it was terminating its membership, effective in 12 months time.

Mr Martin said the organisation has opened acknowledged inefficiencies in the national advocacy model “for some years now”, and that it was pushing reforms needed to change that.

“From time to time the association reviews and renews its subscriptions to various like organisations. One of the options is giving notice that puts a finish line on that process of review and renew,” he said.

NFF president David Jochinke said he was optimistic that governance reforms within the NFF scheduled over the next 12 months would ensure NSW Farmers continued to play a key role within the organisation.

“The recent advice from NSW Farmers is premature given the active discussions underway to strengthen the role of members in policy making,” he said.

“We are concerned that farmers in NSW could be disadvantaged by decisions made at the state level, which is why we are committed to doing everything we can to keep them at the heart of national advocacy efforts.”

The state farming organisation suffered a significant financial blow last year when almost $20m was wiped off its balance sheet due to revaluations of its sizeable property holdings, its last annual report shows.

Its membership of the NFF costs the organisation $220,000 a year.

In June last year the group resigned from another national commodity council, citing a need for more efficient farm advocacy.

NSW Farmers president and Mullaley farmer Xavier Martin is believed to have written to the NFF on Monday. Picture: Tim Hunter.

NSW Farmers’ split from the NFF comes seven months after the Victorian Farmers Federation quit the NFF to wind back spending amid dwindling membership and financial pressures.

Then VFF president Emma Germano said at the time the NFF was “out of alignment” with the Victorian farming group.

Current VFF president Brett Hosking declined to comment on NSW Farmers’ decision to leave the NFF, but said the VFF was still in negotiations with the national lobby to work out a pathway forward.

“We do need strong national representation and it needs to be united and bring everyone together,” Mr Hosking said.

“Agriculture is complicated but we are a minority in the Australian community. Only as a united front can we get true change.”

He said the VFF’s current financial situation made its annual subscription of $247,500 untenable. The VFF had been given a years’ reprieve with a reduced hardship subscription of $44,000 prior to it signalling it would quit altogether last year.

“We can’t go back to $220,000 but we’re committed to finding a model that we can (pay),” Mr Hosking said.

The NFF has been undertaking a “desktop review” of its organisational, financial and governance structures, the six state farmer organisations and major commodity peak industry councils to understand “current state resource allocation”.

The findings of the review are expected to inform a restructuring of agricultural advocacy “to deliver effective and efficient resource allocation through shared activities such as governance, administration and finance and policy and advocacy”.