Australian cattle industry outlines its priorities for new national peak body

Biosecurity, increasing production costs and environmental sustainability are the key issues Australian grass-fed cattle producers want the industry’s new national peak body to focus on.

Cattle Australia is due to launch on July 1 to replace the Cattle Council of Australia, which will be dissolved after 43 years.

As part of the restructure, a steering committee led by independent chair Andrew Macaulay recently consulted cattle producers and stakeholders to determine what Cattle Australia’s work priorities should be.

Mr Macaulay said more than 200 submissions were received after a series of webinars, briefing sessions, newsletters and a nationwide advertising campaign.

“The feedback received during the consultation process has been incredibly valuable to the restructure steering committee, who have been using it to inform discussions on Cattle Australia’s organisational design, constitution, priorities, and funding model,” he said.

“The consultation process resulted in a strong level of interest in Cattle Australia from producers and stakeholders, with broad producer reach achieved, notably through the Meat and Livestock Australia databases, which allowed information to reach over 200,000 subscribers.”

Mr Macaulay said the input received would help the organisation be the voice of grass-fed cattle producers and “lead the industry to a stronger, more sustainable future”.

The consultation period has closed but a Cattle Australia spokesperson said the steering committee would continue liaising with stakeholders.

The spokesperson said the steering committee was now drafting a constitution, securing medium-term funding and creating a database in collaboration with industry groups including MLA to help facilitate democratic elections.

It was also determining what the transition process would be for the transfer of CCA responsibilities to Cattle Australia.

“The restructure steering committee have identified a phased approach, which means a board transition process will be required between CCA and Cattle Australia post-July 1 to allow time for the election process to be fully developed and implemented,” the spokesperson said.

“Discussions with CCA on this process are ongoing.”

All payers of the grass-fed levy will be eligible to be members of Cattle Australia and entitled to vote.

According to Cattle Australia, the restructure has been the result of collaboration between industry and government to ensure the cattle production sector “meets current and future challenges”.

Representatives from WAFarmers and the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA have been closely involved with the restructure.