Wool industry reform: Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud pushes on with plans for ‘unified voice’

Australia’s wool industry is in for a shakeup with work to create a “unified voice” in progress just weeks after a similar process led to the creation of one body for cattle producers. Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud is pushing on with his plans to overhaul the funding arrangements of the nation’s 15 research and development corporations, which together receive more than $800 million funding each year. About $500m of that total comes from industry levies and $300m from taxpayers. Mr Littleproud has touted the discussions about merging industry lobby and research groups has having potential to modernise and hold them — including Australian Wool Innovation — to account to government, taxpayers and levy payers. Representatives from several wool industry bodies met for the third time via Zoom on Friday to discuss how reform could work. Mr Littleproud said it was time for “fragmented” sections of Australia’s $3 billion wool industry to come together, but what that looked like would be determined by industry. “That may not necessarily mean there’s one body but if nothing else it’s an agreement of how they should work together to make sure that they are representing wool producers across a number of different aspects of the industry,” he said. “What I am doing now is going through the process to try and get some agreement across all of these groups about how they should operate and make sure they are consulting and being consulted by Australian Wool Innovation into the future. “I think that gives a more robust system than a fragmented approach where we have got all of these groups going off in different directions. That is the last phase of it.” WA groups involved in the discussions last week included the Pastoralists and Graziers of WA, ASHEEP, and the WA Stud Merino Breeders Association. There were also several national or State-based groups, including WoolProducers Australia, Australian Wool Growers Association, Australian Superfine Wool Growers Association, Australian Association of Stud Merino Breeders, MerinoLink, Commercial Merino Ewe Competitions Association, and NSW Stud Merino Breeders Association. The wool industry discussions come just weeks after a similar process was undertaken with grass-fed cattle producers to develop a new peak body called Cattle Australia. After 43 years, the Cattle Council of Australia will be dissolved on July 1 1 and replaced by Cattle Australia in a bid to provide cattle producers with a unified, visible, and influential voice — according to the restructuring steering committee chair Andrew Macaulay. Public consultation is open until April 15 about what Cattle Australia’s key focus will be. A similar body Grains Australia was formed in April last year, with the group expected to amalgamate several good functions groups within Australia’s $15b grains industry. The group was also formed to consolidate “fragmented” sections of the industry by amalgamating smaller groups responsible for trade reform, market access negotiations, receival standards, variety classification, biosecurity and policy. Mr Littleproud urged industry to “leave egos and history” at the door and set a pathway for reform to give wool producers a unified voice.