Last week the NSW Farmers’ Association held its annual conference at Luna Park in Sydney, and three delegates from Walcha attended Hyde Thomson, Tim Norton and I.
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The conference is the main policy making forum for the association, as well as an opportunity for delegates to hear from key industry stakeholders. During the three days delegates debated motions that covered Local Land Services implementation and structure, biosecurity, animal welfare, marketing, research and development and constitutional changes. There were also elections held for representative positions within the association.
Region two, which includes the Walcha branch and district council, elected Richard Croft from Uralla as chairman for the next 12 months.
During recent years the region has been inactive as a level of representation. There is now a renewed willingness amongst the branches and district councils to collaborate with each other to share information and resources.
Under Mr Croft’s stewardship we look forward to seeing this happen. Region two also elected four delegates to Executive Council (EC). Executive Council is the policy making platform between annual conferences.
We were fortunate to have five members nominate for the four positions, and then one member was elected as an executive councillor with special qualifications.
This gives Region two five EC members being Archie Cameron (Glen Innes), James Jackson (Guyra), Andrew Wood (Armidale), Chris Laurie (Uralla) and Sonia O’Keefe (Walcha).
Executive Council then elected delegates to the association advisory committees which cover each major commodity section and pursue policy on behalf of members.
We have representatives on each of the committees relevant to this area including cattle, sheepmeats, wool, conservation and resource management, rural affairs and business economics and trade.
Sonia O’Keefe is on the rural affairs committee and Hyde Thomson is on the BEAT committee, each for a second year.
Prior to the conference the Walcha branch held a meeting at Embers restaurant to discuss upcoming motions. We were pleased to have Senator Scott MacDonald MLC, from Guyra attend the meeting to hear members views on several issues and give a government perspective.
It was great to hear Senator MacDonald talk about how relevant the Association is to policy development and he gave comparisons to other industries that do not have peak body representation.
