Australian Dairy Plan concerns over grassroots farmers being left out

Grassroots dairy farmers have been left out of the Australian Dairy Plan, argues Sarah Campbell, who says her alternative plan gives them more of a say.

An alternative to the Australian Dairy Plan gives farmers a powerful platform to advocate for policy change — independent of processors. Picture: Zoe Philips

I AM an experienced corporate and dairy HR consultant who has developed the Dairy Farmers of Australia solution initiated by local Wannon farmers, as a rival alternate model to the Australian Dairy Plan.

This is an exciting model that unites our dairy farmers nationally in a federated structure, independent of processors, which will give farmers a powerful platform to advocate policy.

The focus of DFA is to represent our dynamic, entrepreneurial grassroots “dairy farmers voice”, across Australia.

Positions will be democratically elected and mandated ethical governance is embedded in the culture with open communication from national, state, and branches. DFA has been designed by farmers, with a focus on the ‘best interests’ of farmers.

I believe the ADP must allow all dairy farmers on their distribution list, to have access and have equal campaign support for farmers to vote on the DFA model, alongside the ADP proposal.

I’m from a successful large herd dairy family farm in southwest Victoria and have an extensive career guiding large companies through major strategic and structural governance reforms.

In my professional capacity, I am concerned about the ADP and our current dairy advocacy group’s ADF, Victorian Farmers Federation and United Dairyfarmers of Victoria’s corporate governance.

In my experience, successful transformations bring people, like our grassroots farmers, on the journey of the process. They must be able to ask the hard questions because this allows the outcome to evolve and for individuals to buy-in and have ownership; which is critical to the success of restructuring our dairy advocacy model.

I have seen none of this to date in the process of the ADP.

The “Dairy Farmer Voice” group was formed to raise awareness of the alternate DFA model and the John Dahlsen Fair Transfer Payment solution of $0.40c per litre on drinkable milk, calculating to 13.3c paid direct to all dairy farmers.

• Sarah Campbell is a corporate and dairy human resources consultant

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