NFF president Fiona Simson keen for effective, short reign

National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson said she wants be in her leadership role “for a short time, and a good time”.

National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson with her husband Ed and son Tom on the family’s mixed cropping and grazing property, The Plantation. Picture: Supplied

NATIONAL Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson said she wants be in her leadership role “for a short time, and a good time”.

It’s her goal to have the biggest impact she can within a relatively quick time frame.

During the 2019 Australian Summer Grains Conference she explained the toll the role of president had on her farm life and family life.

She said she did not intend to stay more than six years in the job, and that she was close to wrapping up her first three-year block.

However, she was never short of enthusiasm.

“Because I am living these issues — I am a farmer, I have a farm at home, I talk to farmers regularly — I am so passionate about all the topics we cover, they personally affect me.”

But she said the travel, and demand for her to be “available” for a 24-hour news cycle, was wearing.

“When Ed married me, we didn’t plan on me getting up on a Monday morning, driving an hour and half to get on a plane and not coming home until Friday night,” she said.

“It’s something we have had to embrace as a family.”

When MC Pete Lewis asked her if it was inevitable she would become NFF president she said “gosh no.”

“It was something that I never dreamt of doing. I just got very passionate about a local issue, and I thought my skills could help in that role, and help in the community,” Ms Simson said.

The night before her presentation, she was disheartened by ABC coverage of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. She called out the Four Corners segment as being “one sided”.

“We need our Australian broadcaster to do their job and provide fair and balanced reporting — to give people who don’t understand the issue the opportunity to make up their own minds,” she said.