GPA chair and Moree grower Matthew Madden.

NEWLY elected Grain Producers Australia chair Matthew Madden said the organisation was striving for a “united voice” with fellow representative body GrainGrowers amid what he described as “perceived division” between the groups.

The Moree grower said an “aligned” message from the organisations would produce the best outcomes when advocating to government on growers’ concerns.

The comments come as GrainGrowers proposes constitutional changes that would allow state farming organisations (SFOs) to become members.

SFOs have traditionally only been members of GPA.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed that there’s perceived division amongst the representative bodies when we’re all working for the same cause,” Mr Madden said.

“GPA wants what every grower wants, a united voice, and we want to put the industry ahead of the organisations that represents growers.

“We’re a big country with diversified cropping systems, marketing systems, which naturally leads to some robust discussions to get to a unified national policy position and that’s part of the challenge.

“We don’t really want to see any more fragmentation than what seems to be out there now.”

Mr Madden, who has been a member of the NSW Farmers Grains Committee since 2016, said GPA would “like to work better together to get to a joint position”.

He said this was most important when taking issues to government.

“Even if it’s two organisations, we can still have a single voice, and we will work very hard to ensure that.

“If we’re not aligned, we’re better off not having…that message until we can get alignment.

“The government, we believe they should take notice of us, but we’re stronger with that single unified voice.”

Beyond their joint RO responsibilities, the organisations do not have a current formal agreement.

Mr Madden said under the GPA constitution there had “always been” a place for GrainGrowers in the policy council.

“They haven’t taken it up…but it’s nearly always been there in our constitution.”

RO status

Prior to deregulation of the Australian grain industry, the Grains Council of Australia represented the nation’s growers.

The GCA’s funding model relied heavily on SFOs, and it wound up in 2010, when its representation function was taken over by the newly formed GPA.

GrainGrowers, which has its origins in the Prime Wheat Association and generated its cash reserves from its sale of bulk-handling assets, became Australia’s joint RO under then Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.

Mr Madden said he did not subscribe to the idea Australia should return to having one industry RO, and that between both organisations, “we’re actually covering everybody”.

“Not everybody’s a member of an SFO and doesn’t want to be.

“They’ve got direct members, we’ve got direct members, so between us, I think we cover a large proportion of growers.

“There’s more than enough work to go around.

“GrainGrowers is fortunate to have the reserves that few in any other agricultural industry enjoy, and any of that directed to supporting grain growers is welcome.”

Continued advocacy

Mr Madden said GPA would continue advocating for growers, wherever they were in Australia, despite losing NSW Farmers and GPSA as members.

“Sometimes the representation does change.

“We’ve seen it change in the last 20 years, 10 years, to where people go from one place to the other.

“At least we all have the one thing in common, we actually want to represent growers.”

He said GPA would maintain information flow with growers in SA and NSW via direct members and other means such as webinars and newsletters.

Another concern was the impact of member departures on GPA’s revenue, with

Mr Madden said GPA was already considering its options to boost funding now that GPSA’s and NSW Farmers’ contributions are off the ledger.

He said SFOs were a major basis of revenue but “not the only source”.

New GPA CEO Duncan Bremner

“Our new CEO [Duncan Bremner] is looking at that to ensure that we remain viable… and he’s got some ideas to ensure that it remains sustainable, and we can fulfil our mandate.”

Achievements, roles

Beyond GPA’s internal operations, Mr Madden said the organisation remained focused on advocating for growers and fulfilling its roles across the industry.

“GPA stands behind our achievements.

“The phosphine update, paraquat, mouse baits… these policy wins are directly attributed to GPA and their state members and have greatly benefited all growers.

“We also hold 100…APVMA permits for growers for chemicals…that companies may have let go.”

He said one of the key roles of GPA was as the sole grains representative body that is signatory to the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed (EPPRD).

Signatories to the deed play a role in the management of responses to emergency plant pests (EPP) and participate in decision-making towards the funding of approved responses.

This means that when a national response is triggered to an exotic plant pest or disease detection, GPA is the grains group within national response arrangements with government and industry to respond to the incursion.

“This is the unsung hero of what we do because we’re giving the grains industry a voice when there is a biosecurity incident.

“Khapra beetle would virtually wipe out Australian grains industry, and nobody hears about it because fortunately we’ve been able to get on top of the last two incursions.

“The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that there is a robust checking system and then when there is an outbreak. it’s just quite extraordinary the lengths and the work that people do to ensure that it gets nowhere.”

GPA also has formal service agreements with the National Residue Survey to provide technical grain industry advice, through participating in meetings and disseminating information to growers.

The organisation is also a member of committees including: National Mouse Management Group; ACCC Agriculture Consultative Committee; Grain and Plant Products Export Industry Consultative Committee, and National Bee Pest Surveillance Program.

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