Lisa Dwyer: Collaboration offers industry one last chance for strong future
To add $500 million in value and create jobs, farmer Lisa Dwyer argues we need to give the Australian Dairy Plan a chance.
MUCH has been read and said about last week’s release of the Australian Dairy Plan.
Its most astonishing achievement has been bringing together the four key sector partners for the first time in the history of the Australian dairy industry to deliver on commitments that align with the input of over 1500 people who took part in consultation.
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Sadly, this achievement has largely gone unrecognised due to a small coterie of individuals who appear intent on detonating the best opportunity we’ve ever had to overcome the weaknesses that have beset our industry for far too long — before it has even had a chance.
It is deeply upsetting to see the actions of a few attempt to undermine the efforts of many, due to a misinformed belief of the precedence of dairy farmers over all other supply chain participants, rather than the essential symbiotic relationship.
The document clearly maps out a plan to growth that can create almost $500 million additional value at the farmgate and several thousand new jobs, with most in rural and regional Australia.
This is a prize that must transcend small-minded interests.
Do the plan’s detractors want to be a part of contributing to a national success story of which all Australians can be proud, or be remembered for sabotaging the best and maybe last opportunity we have to make it work?
If you too, are a dairy farmer and are as tired as I am of the fragmentation of an industry that has given, and offers so much, you cannot afford to be silent.
● Lisa Dwyer is a dairy farmer in southwest Victoria.
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