Farewell Address
Farewell Dinner for David Crombie
Boathouse on the Lake Restaurant
Canberra
17 November 2010
By
David Crombie
President
National Farmers’ Federation
Ministers, Leader of the Opposition, shadow Ministers, parliamentarians, Ambassadors, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you Tony (Burke) for your kind words. We obviously didn’t know each other well in 2007 but since then we have developed a strong and open working relationship.
I have valued that. The NFF has valued it. Thank you.
I came to NFF four-and-a-half years ago. My background was 25 years in agri-business, plus seven years with Meat and Livestock Australia.
I knew nothing of the intrigues of agricultural politics, nor did I understand the political labyrinth that is Canberra.
Peter Corish and Presidents before him left a strong legacy at NFF and I have enjoyed the support of effective Boards and excellent staff under the leadership of Ben Fargher.
I don’t think any of them knew just how little I knew when I arrived in Canberra.
What I was conscious of was the need for sound and consistent policy development at the national level and the need for unity of purpose in its advocacy.
The core business of NFF was, and still is, the development of policy that sets the framework within which our food and fibre producers and supply chains can operate and prosper.
To achieve this we needed structural reform of the NFF itself – real reform with broad representation and through chain engagement.
What I would like to do tonight is to reflect briefly on the past and then look at where Australian agriculture may be in the future.
The last four years at the NFF have been all-consuming. In fact, I can hardly recall doing anything else.
And there have been significant challenges and change.
§ Three Prime Ministers, three Ministers of Agriculture,
§ Two federal elections, a change of government and the re-election of the current government,
§ The global economic crisis and its impact on the economies and currencies of our trading partners,
§ Pestilence of biblical proportions ... the worst drought in living memory, major floods, devastating bushfires and now grasshoppers, and of course,
§ the ongoing policy debates around market access, emissions trading, water, drought reform, northern development, biosecurity and biotechnology to name a few.
All of these directly influence the environment within which we operate. These have, indeed, been interesting times.
They have also been extremely difficult times for many farmers, their families and their communities. The dead hand of drought saps the strength of the strongest. But there is always hope in the bush and we are seeing renewed confidence throughout eastern and central Australia.
But we all know the cash doesn’t flow until the crops are off and the herds replenished. Sadly, our friends in the west are doing it tough at this time – but this is Australia.
Our food and fibre producers and their communities are good at what they do. We are world competitive. Our farmers don’t want pity or handouts. They want a fair go and a hand up when nature turns against them, not a hand out.
Farming has also become more demanding and more complex. There is an increasing focus on consumer expectations, not only in the quality of food that is produced, but also how it is produced.
The integrity and the ethics of our production systems, including environmental sustainability, are now part of the expectation in the meal decisions of today’s consumers.
Our supply chains have shortened and responded with a culture of through chain accountability and improved transparency. This is the way of the future, but there are dangers.
The biggest danger that I see is over regulation. Where government attempts to second guess the market and impose standards and regulations simply add cost and complexity.
The role of government should be to legislate in areas of food safety and biosecurity and work with industry in developing a framework of outcomes with delivery based on partnership as opposed to punitive legislation and regulation.
Let me now turn to the future.
In my view, the mega trend is world population growth and competition for arable land and water. This will bring pressure to bear on our natural resources and the environment. As a planet, we will be forced to modify what we do and make some big choices.
I am not a Malthusian. We have already modified our landscapes and we currently produce enough food for our 6.8 billion people. But it is not even. There are a billion who are overweight and the billion currently living in poverty is a result of displacement, poor distribution and wastage.
As we go forward we are going to have to make some big decisions. World population is projected to expand to over 9 billion by 2050 – an increase of over 50%.
It is not only more mouths to feed. Within our region in particular, there will also be a shift in food and fibre demand as a consequence of economic growth.
So where will the extra food come from?
There is not a lot of new arable land available and there is no new Green Revolution on the horizon. Added to this sovereign policies around trade protection, food security and bio-fuels are not helpful and are diverting and restricting the movement of food from areas of surplus to areas of need.
All of this represents great opportunities and challenges for Australian agriculture.
Our future is not in the production of base commodities. Our opportunities are in the expanding regional markets for our high quality clean food and fibre - products that carry with them the guarantee of transparent supply chains that have inbuilt ethics and environmental integrity that are backed by industry systems.
Our challenge is to produce these quality products and to produce more with less –less water, less fertilizer, less chemicals and less labour.
This will require a lift in research spending on production. We used to lead the world in dry-land agricultural technologies, in tropical livestock production, in irrigation and in genetics.
We have taken our foot off the research pedal at a time of our greatest need and our rate of farm productivity improvement is sliding.
Our farmers need research. It is research that gives them the tools to improve their international competiveness. This is our opportunity. But it goes much deeper than simply an export opportunity.
The adaption of this research in a practical way can provide a basis for our international engagement. This is our responsibility.
The majority of food, particularly in developing countries, is consumed where it is produced. Adapted technologies can help. As an example our ‘precision farming’ technologies retain stubble and place nutrients and water to match plant requirements.
This translates into the smallholder ‘conservation farming’ systems that work so well in Africa and Asia.
This is where Australia has so much to offer. Supplying food and fibre at the top end of the market and sharing appropriate technologies to assist small holder farmers in supplying their local market needs.
I propose that we think outside the square and expand the base for our research funding.
Research at home can support our farmers and, at the same time, provide road-tested technologies that contribute to our regional obligations.
So what will our rural sector look like going forward?
I see a future where our farmers will be valued for their production of food and respected for their environmental delivery.
They will also be recognised for their contribution to healthy and sustainable rural communities and to the national economy.
Farm incomes will be diversified and will include stewardship payments for environmental delivery, plus carbon offsets, and there will be separate revenue streams from emerging opportunities for mining contracting and national park management.
Our domestic population is projected to increase but we will still depend on external markets for the majority of our food and fibre production.
Global food price spikes will have put paid to the notion that food security can be delivered through border protection and food will be moving more freely from areas of surplus to areas of need.
We will be exporting into our region where consumer tastes will be changing and where the high income segment will be equivalent in size to those of the developed nations.
The farm family will continue to dominate our production base but there will be family and corporate investments that stretch through-chain, recognising the investment opportunities for soft commodities in the Asian growth region.
Foreign interest will continue to be encouraged but will be monitored to ensure that monopoly investments do not dominate industries at the critical control points of processing and marketing.
New financial models separating land and water assets from operations will provide a new stream of development capital and will allow farm families to maintain their production and, at the same time, better manage their succession assets.
The outmoded managed investment schemes will have been successfully modified to allow a more flexible entry point for institutional and investment capital based on commercial reality.
In research, the federal government matched by business will seize the opportunity and Australia will be recognised as the ‘Silicon Valley’ for food and fibre technology.
This will be the driver for our expanded world competitive food and fibre exports. This is our opportunity.
In parallel, our adapted technologies will be in demand for better food security. This addresses our responsibility within our region.
We will continue to adapt to our variable climate. We will develop new production tools and we will shake off the shackles that have held back our research into biotechnologies and GMO’s.
These will be seen not as the solution but rather as another tool in the box... a tool box that enables our farmers to sustainably produce more with less.
We will have refined our drought policies with a range of new approaches based on a better understanding of seasonal risk and preparedness. This may include measures such as multi-peril insurance backed by government and supported by an improved matrix of risk management data.
Together these will provide a mix of challenging career paths for our brightest young scientists and management entrepreneurs and for diverse and better paid job prospects.
So how do we get there?
We need to develop a suite of policies that empower and enable our farm sector to get on with the job. Policies that talk about outcomes with a minimum of regulation.
Some will require funding – a lot of funding – but others simply tenacity and commitment to the cause.
Market access can free up the movement of goods and services around the world. Multilateral reform is the big game in town but it is also the hardest. A successful Doha Round can pull down barriers to trade but, most importantly, can set up a rules-based system.
Free Trade Agreements and regional agreements are useful, but we must not compromise on the hard call for ambitious outcomes for agriculture.
Water policy must balance the interests of the environment, regional communities and food production and there must be certainty of entitlement for all water users.
This was the intent of the national plan. There needs to be full and open accounting for all water, including the environment, and savings need to come from a combination of engineering efficiencies and transparent open market buy back.
Regional Australia needs road, rail and port infrastructure, as well as urban- parity communications. This will provide opportunities for the growth of regional businesses and provide viable choices for regional population growth.
I have covered the need for agricultural research and for biotechnology and biosecurity and I should also throw in the need for regional tax incentives and workplace flexibility to attract new businesses and their related workforces.
These are the NFF’s policy priorities. They need to be constantly refined and pursued with a unity of purpose.
To this end, the NFF needs to constantly change to reflect the needs of new and emerging industries and supply chains. In the last four years we have endeavoured to do this.
Our biggest task is to maintain the trust of the wider community. As a nation we have romantic notions about the bush but, at the same time, we take our food for granted. We have never been hungry.
The majority of Australians now and the 10 to 15 million additional Australians in 2050, do not really understand what we do and why we do it.
We need to tell our stories – we need to earn their trust. Trust in the quality of our food and fibre and trust in the ethics and the integrity of how we produce it.
I was in New Zealand recently and I asked the taxi driver example what the best two things about New Zealand are. He said “we have the most beautiful country in the world and tourism supports our quality of life, and we produce the best food in the world”.
It is my dream to hear our taxi drivers give the same response.
In closing, I would like to thank Ben Fargher who is seeking a career change after 10 years at the NFF. Ben has grown mightily in the job, I have appreciated his support, admired his tenacity and valued his capacity.