McCormack wins Rising Champion while McCormack talks up beef industry positivity

The event held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra last night saw Queensland’s Kirsty McCormack crowned the national 2017 NAB Agribusiness Rising Champion.

Ms McCormack works for OBE Organic in Brisbane as a Sales and Production Executive and studied a Bachelor of Rural Science at the University of New England in northern NSW.

Runner up was Jeremy Cummins from NSW who is a livestock buyer for Teys Australia based in the New England region and runs a cattle trading business with his wife on their property near Somerton NSW.

Mr Cummins received a scholarship to the Marcus Oldham Rural Leadership program provided by the Australian Beef Industry Foundation.

As this year’s national winner Ms McCormack will attend the International Beef Alliance conference in NZ in October.

Cattle Council is a member of the International Beef Alliance, which provides Australian beef producers with a voice at an international level.

Announcement of the winners was made by National Australia Bank’s (NAB) general manager agribusiness Khan Horne who also pledged to sponsor the Rising Champion’s program for another 12-months, which was welcomed by Council CEO Jed Matz.

One of the main event highlights was a speech by Small Business Minister Michael McCormack who said he was not related to the winner but stepped in for Nationals leader and Federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce.

“Did I tell you Barnaby Joyce is responsible for the rain and the good season we’re having and the record prices?” he said.

“I’m the first National Party member who is the Small Business Minister.

“Of the small businesses in my Riverina electorate a third of them, that’s in the order of thousands of people, are in the agricultural industry, and certainly many, many of those are beef cattle producers.”

Mr McCormack acknowledged various event sponsors including the NAB, McDonald’s Australia, Fairfax Agricultural Media and Teys Australia, along with Jim’s Jerky, the Australian Beef Industry Foundation and RB Sellars.

He said Teys employed upwards of 700 people at Wagga Wagga in his rural Riverina electorate in NSW and had 105,000 people working in the meat processing sector throughout Australia.

“Sometimes I think they’re (meat workers) undervalued but they certainly aren’t in this room and they shouldn’t be undervalued anywhere because they are the people who actually end up putting food on our table and are responsible for so much of our exports as well,” he said.

Mr McCormack also acknowledged Labor Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon who was another special guest at the event.

Mr McCormack said many people didn’t realise that opposing members of federal parliament often got on very well with each other, outside of question time, and were working for a common cause, “for a better Australia”.

He also highlighted Marc Greening’s family stud at Book Book, in his Riverina electorate, who sold an 18-month old Poll Hereford bull in February, named Injemira Anzac K-220, for a record Australian auction price of $110,000.

While acknowledging Cattle Council President Howards Smith and National Farmers’ Federation CEO Tony Mahar, Mr McCormack said they were not most important people in the room and nor was he or Mr Fitzgibbon, other Council executives, or sponsors.

The most important people in the room, he said, were this year’s finalists - Ms McCormack, Mr Cummins, Rob Ewing of Victoria, Hannah Marshall of SA, Kristy-Lee Fogarty of the NT, Weldon Percy from WA and Laura Shepherd from Tasmania.

Mr McCormack also praised last year’s Rising Champion winner Kevin Stark who spoke at the dinner about his experiences over the last 12-months as an industry representative leader.

“What a great advocate Kevin is for your industry - we need to get him in the National Party,” he said.

“You need those sorts of people to be strident advocates for your industry; young people who can get up and give a speech and talk up your industry because that’s what it’s all about.

“It’s about the power of positivity - there’s far too much negativity in the world - that’s what we need, particularly in agriculture.

“If you do have a career in agriculture, you do have a job for life and the more we can tell people that, not inside this room, not inside the bubble in Canberra, but out there in rural and regional Australia, and dare I say it Joel (Fitzgibbon), in capital cities, the more the message will get out there.”

Mr McCormack said it was a “really smart move” by NAB to sponsor the Rising Champion award because, “they are your industry’s future; they are the Cattle Council’s future; and they are the beef industry’s future”.

He said while the winner would have their name ultimately engraved on the trophy, the other finalists “are still winners and they deserve every accolade”.

“We do need to continue to talk up the beef industry - all of the finalists are champions of their industry,” he said.