Victorian Farmers Federation overhauls membership fee structure

A recruitment drive is underway to attract new members to the Victorian Farmers Federation with big changes to annual fees.

A convoluted system of Victorian Farmers Federation membership levels is being simplified – from the existing 30 types down to four new categories.

VFF president Emma Germano this week announced the four-level system, which is being hailed as a win for dairy farmers particularly, who have previously been dissuaded from joining the lobby group.

Farmers and agri-supporters can sign up to one of the four membership packages – platinum, gold, silver or bronze.

But existing members whose renewal date is in the coming 12 months need not change until their current membership is close to expiration.

“There has been significant reform around the processes of the organisation. This is about future-proofing the VFF,” Ms Germano said.

“With the resistance and challenges coming down the line at farmers from policy decisions that have been made that make it increasingly difficult for us to produce food and fibre, it is vital that as many farmers as possible join the VFF.”

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano.

The $395 bronze membership largely replaces the associate member status, enabling more casual supporters to sign up.

The $695 silver category is the standard membership with full voting rights.

The $895 gold members get access to workplace relations advice and more VFF events while the $1495 platinum package gives members a broader sweep of opportunities to attend forums and field days.

“If you’re a current member of the VFF and had a renewal date of February, you won’t receive an email to transfer over to the new membership structure until February. And then you’ll only pay pro-rata until September 30,” Ms Germano said.

“The reason for that is both for business continuity, cashflow management and just ensuring that we weren’t transferring over everybody at the same time, so we can assist with any questions.”

Dairy farmers have long called for changes to the VFF membership structure, with many larger operators opting against membership because the volume of milk they produced was linked to VFF fees.

“The first email members will receive will say ‘this is the category most closely linked to your current financial contribution’,” Ms Germano said.

“If you were a dairy farmer paying a levy $1500, it will automatically suggest a platinum, because that’s how much you were paying. But people can select to drop down to the other categories as they see fit.

“Particularly for the dairy levies, because that had been collected by the (milk) processors up until a member changes over or selects a new membership model, their next levy will still be collected by the processors. So once you choose your new membership with the VFF, you’ll get an invoice to pay and then you turn off the levy with the processor and the VFF gives you instructions to do that.”