Opinion: NSW Farmers caught in its own web of dysfunction

How can a farmer lobby group advocate when it can’t even communicate, questions The Weekly Times Editor James Wagstaff.

NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin wrote to the National Farmers’ Federation last week, resigning its membership.

How can you advocate if you can’t even communicate?

It’s the question farmers across NSW must now be asking following the NSW Farmers Association’s spectacular mishandling of its resignation from the National Farmers’ Federation last week.

Last Monday, NSW Farmers — more specifically, its president Xavier Martin — sent a letter to the NFF, giving 12 months’ notice of the organisation’s intention to quit its membership. Fair enough: agitating for reform of national farmer advocacy is nothing new.

But it was the chaotic handling and lack of ownership of its decision that caused things to quickly unravel for NSW Farmers.

The Weekly Times broke the story the day after the letter was sent — clearly catching the organisation off guard. Reports suggest staff and even some members of the NSW Farmers board were blindsided by the move, and grassroots members were left confused. It took hours for the association to cobble together even a vague, reactive statement — one that raised more questions than it answered.

Then came the defensiveness. The finger-pointing. The blame-shifting — fast and furious.

Mr Martin appeared on ABC’s NSW Country Hour radio program and, in a rambling interview, did what weak leaders often do: attack the messenger. He railed against “malicious characters” for leaking the story, and dismissed The Weekly Times as “the pink newspaper from the south that farmers traditionally use for firelighting,” accusing it of misrepresenting the situation.

“(It’s) nonsense (what) you’ve read in that pink newspaper about it being a resignation,” Mr Martin told the program.

The problem? We had the letter.

There it was, in black and white — signed by Xavier Martin: “It is after authorisation and careful consideration that I write to inform you and the NFF Board of the decision by NSW Farmers Association to give notice of termination of our NFF membership, effective 12 months from the date of this letter.”

So not a resignation — but a termination? Either way, the distinction is semantic at best – and meaningless to farmers seeking clarity about the organisation’s future direction.

While Mr Martin’s letter claimed NSW Farmers remained committed to national advocacy and a restructured model of representation, the language was clumsy and ambiguous, leaving it wide open to interpretation. Nowhere did it clearly signal an intention to work collaboratively with the NFF towards reform. To most observers, it appeared NSW Farmers was walking away altogether.

Regardless of its internal motivations, NSW Farmers failed spectacularly to manage the optics of a decision of this magnitude. Any organisation serious about its advocacy role should have had a robust communications strategy ready: a clear statement to members and stakeholders issued the moment the letter was sent, pre-arranged media interviews to manage the message, and an internal plan to keep everyone on the same page.

Instead, NSW Farmers delivered confusion, contradiction, and a full-blown communications train wreck — topped off by an unconvincing attempt to spin its way out of trouble with denial, blame, and misleading statements.

What hope is there for stronger, more cohesive farmer advocacy if one of our best-resourced lobby groups can’t even get the messaging right?

James Wagstaff is the Editor of The Weekly Times