VFF revolt: 156 farmers call for extraordinary general meeting
The VFF has issued a statement about the efforts to oust the group’s current board.
Grain growers have delivered more than 150 signatures to the Victorian Farmers Federation calling for an extraordinary general meeting at which they hope to oust the group’s board.
Former VFF Grains Group presidents Brett Hosking and Andrew Weidemann said they took less than a week to gain more than the 100 signatures needed to set an EGM in motion.
On Monday, Mr Weidemann delivered a total of 156 signatures to the VFF head office.
“The resolution is essentially a vote of no confidence in the board,” Mr Weidemann said.
“It’s now over to the company secretary to inform the board and then the board will obviously go through the process from here.”
A written statement from the VFF, issued on Tuesday, said: “The VFF has received a request for an EGM and the Board has 21 days to respond.”
Mr Hosking said the aim of the resolution was to install an interim board at the EGM, led by former VFF president Paul Weller, which would help stabilise the federation’s finances and then run elections, overseen by the electoral commission, within six months.
Mr Hosking said members were angered and frustrated with the current board’s decisions, such as cashing out the grain group’s $9.8 million deed poll fund to pay off borrowings, cutting commodity staffing and failing to engage with farmers.
The VFF lost 844 members last year, according to its own financial reports, while borrowings soared from $4 million in 2018 to the current $8.2 million.
VFF president Emma Germano previously said: “While any member of the VFF that meets the constitutional requirements can rightly call for an EGM, the VFF board completely rejects the premise of the resolution.”
She said the VFF was “now in its strongest financial position in years, having paid down debt, reduced unnecessary expenditure, moved away from using debt to fund operations and has turned a much-needed operating surplus”.
“This vocal minority, while they are entitled to have their say, does not reflect the thousands of VFF members who loud and clear voted for change and transformation over the past four years,” she said.
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