CONTROVERSY dominated the final half day of the NSW Farmers conference last Thursday when opposing opinions on the long simmering constitutional stew were brought to boiling point.
The most controversial motions were narrowly voted down, while changes to clarify NSW Farmers’ membership eligibility, corporate powers and governance gained the 75 per cent majority needed for constitutional reform.
Changes to streamline the structure of local representation and the executive council, and to increase the tenure of board members from one year to two missed out, receiving 73.58pc of the 75pc vote needed.
The majority of a suite of reforms (“NSW Farmers to vote on reform”, The Land, July 10, p19) first proposed at last year’s conference have now been passed by delegates.
Delegates agreed to vote one more time on the reforms, at an extraordinary meeting, penciled in to coincide with executive council in October.
Proponents said changing the constitution would help modernise, streamline and boost the grass roots representation of the organisation.
President Fiona Simson said the reforms were developed in response to falling membership and the new structure would allow the grass roots to “bring policy through swiftly”.
Several delegates argued extending terms for executive councillors would bring the organisation into line with common corporate governance practices and help increase the collective knowledge of the association.
Opponents said the reforms would remove checks and balances on the board’s power – and saved much criticism for the proposal to increase the minimum term for board members from one year to two.
Indicative of the opposition was Peter Comensoli, Mangrove Mountain.
“Arguments in favour of extending executive councillors’ terms are an insult to the judgment of our voters.”
Mr Comensoli said the reforms would not boost the association’s “corporate memory”, councillors who deserved to be returned for a second term would be returned and the extended timeframe could prohibit talented candidates from putting their hand up.
“Only once in 36 years has a sitting director seeking re-election after only one year not been returned,” he said.
“Making commitments outside the farm is hard. Forcing candidates to commit to more than one year in a voluntary organisation reduces the talent pool.”
Vice president Mark Horan said he was “confused by people saying the board will have too much control”.
“Under the Corporations Act, the board has very strong duties to comply with and that will not cease or diminish,” he said.
A taskforce of elected NSW Farmers members would be revived to look again at the proposed reforms.
Chief executive Matt Brand was hopeful “some more tweaking” could deliver an “overwhelming majority” for the reforms, indicating extended terms for the executive council could be dropped.
“We will go back into the bush and just fine tune some of the adjustments we are making to the organisations,” he said.
“If the members don’t want to do that (extend the executive council’s tenure), then it’s a grass roots organisation, and we won’t do it. But that is an issue for the members.”
NSW Farmers lobbies for blackspot support
COAL seam gas, native vegetation, drought support and telecommunications were on Come-By-Chance mixed cropper and grazier Ben Hawke’s agenda at this year’s NSW Farmers conference.
Held at Luna Park, Milson’s Point, Sydney, this was the first conference in a long time for Mr Hawke.
Jovially referenced as the rookie from Walgett (near Come-By-Chance), Mr Hawke was particularly focused on telecommunications.
“It’s a daily grind for us. Farmers are now using both the mobile phone and data to run our businesses these days,” he said.
In a recent NSW Farmers survey, 85 per cent of the 630 farmers surveyed reported their mobile coverage was intermittent or non-existent and 85pc said there had been no recent improvement in their mobile coverage.
The federal budget committed $100 million across four years to boost regional mobile coverage.
“We’re pushing to get the funding expanded and fast tracked, especially to increase the number of mobile towers,” Mr Hawke said.
“I’m not saying we want to be able to roam across all our paddocks with blanket coverage, but at least be able to have a car kit and an aerial that can get coverage across all agricultural producing regions in NSW.”