By KATRINA BRANDON
OPENING the table to all topics of conversation, Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) Chief Executive Charlie Thomas and president Ryan Milgate held a community meeting in Flynn last month.
Around 15 people attended the session, asking Mr Thomas and Mr Milgate about their plans as leaders in agricultural at Flynn Community Hall.
Raised on a farm near Condobolin, New South Wales, Mr Thomas’ early experiences helped shape his deep commitment to advancing the interests of rural communities and Australia’s farm sector.
Mr Milgate runs a family-owned mixed farming enterprise in the Wimmera and northern Grampians regions of western Victoria, with wheat, barley, lentils, canola and vetch hay production and a self-replacing prime lamb operation.
“Before I took on the role, (there was a) lot of energy, and what I saw was commitment to get the organisation focused on what members want and advocating for a set of things that members told us were important to them,” Mr Thomas told the gathering.
“It’s been a really busy year on a handful of issues, lots of tax stuff, lots of land use issues, feeding the sustainability space of international trade, but also we were working on right to repair various things, making sure that we’re hearing from members on what’s important to them, so that we’re taking that to Spring St and getting that on the agenda for the election to come.”
On the night, Mr Thomas stated there was no agenda, noting nothing was off the table for conversation. He also wanted to highlight the positives of Victoria’s agricultural sector while hearing from farmers across the state about what they need, their current challenges and concerns, and ideas on how to improve agriculture statewide.
According to Mr Thomas, Victoria had three per cent of Australia’s agricultural land, but produced a quarter of Australia’s agricultural output. Victoria is also producing more agricultural graduates than any other state, showing that Victoria’s agricultural community and industry is an incredible asset.
Only four weeks into the job, Mr Milgate shared that while he wasn’t counting being the VFF president on his bingo card, he assured the group that he was focused on listening to what they had to say and that their commitment didn’t stop here.
Some of the topics brought up on the night included engaging youth in the sector; pathways in agriculture; making agriculture more appealing; mine rehabilitation; data centres; protecting prime farmland; rates; environmental regulations and inputs; wages and licensing; the local economy, and agricultural education.
Farmers also raised concerns about solar panels on prime agricultural land. One farmer used the example of companies saying that sheep can roam between panels, but chemicals used to clean the panels are quite harmful and kill the grass beneath.
The group asked why, instead of using farmland, these companies couldn’t use already-established buildings for solar panels.
