External politics focus for Farmers

An emergency general meeting of the executive council mooted for Dubbo in February - which would have coincided with one of the three yearly official gatherings - has been shelved.

Proposed reforms were developed by a taskforce and brought to the annual general meeting (AGM) in 2013.

Many of the reforms have been voted in during the course of the past two AGMs.

However, key measures to streamline the structure of local representation narrowly missed the majority of votes required to alter the association's constitution gaining 73.5 per cent of the 75pc majority required to approve the changes last year.

Association president Fiona Simson told delegates at last year's AGM an emergency meeting to resolve the outstanding reforms was slated for October, which was then pushed back to February.

However, the NSW Farmers board has now decided constitutional reform should take a back seat while the State election campaign rumbles though to the last weekend in March.

Mrs Simson said members' feedback convinced the board reforms could wait until June.

"We did give the executive council a heads up that the emergency meeting would be in February," Mrs Simson said.

"But given the amount of work required by our staff members to prepare for a vote on the constitution, and the lack of negative feedback from members, we decided it would be better to focus on advocacy in the lead-up to the election.

Chief executive Matt Brand said members wanted the association to focus on external, rather than internal, issues.

"The grass-roots feedback was members would much rather we get the job done lobbying for farmers and our resources would be better deployed focusing on the election," he said.

Dissenting voices told last year's conference the reforms would curb the independence of the commodity groups, reduce the influence of grassroots members and place too much control in the hands of the board.

Mrs Simson, who will complete the fourth and final year of her tenure this year, said the changes were needed to address declining numbers and improve ordinary members' communication with the executive.

The executive council will still hold its regular meeting in Dubbo next month.