Northern beef’s big players talk gas, China and gender equity

Managing director of the Northern Territory's largest owner of pastoral land Australian Agricultural Company Jason Strong, Consolidated Pastoral Company’s chief executive officer Troy Setter , Hancock Prospecting's Adam Giles, Barkley Pastoral Company's Jane Armstrong and consultant Paul Henderson, Bespoke Territory, provided candid discussion in a panel session hosted by the ABC's Carl Curtain.

It proved a highlight of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association 33rd annual conference.

Hancock Prospecting's purchase of three Territory pastoral leases, with investment from a Chinese entity, was one of the first topics to arise.

Mr Giles said it was not just foreign investment that was important to northern Australia but more Australian investment, particularly from the superfund sector.

"At the end of the day we need money to come in to be able to grow," he said.

"A lot of people seem worried about foreign investment but investment in Australia is actually at  the lowest level it's been since the Whitlam era.

"That's hurting the economy.

"The northern agenda is all about seeing how we can get money in to build the infrastructure needed so we are as competitive as we can be.

"If we don't have that investment we will go backwards and be overtaken by many of our competitors around the world."

Mr Giles said Hancock sought to be Australia's biggest and best cattle company and it's NT purchases were “not in any way about any gas or mining developments.”

However, gas and cattle could "absolutely work together," he said.

"We have to make sure the gas industry, just like any other industry that might come onto a cattle property, is a good citizen," he said.

"There have been some announcements about royalties from gas flowing to property holders.

"If we move to a space where part of the profit flows to the property owner, gas will certainly be a more welcome proposition than it has been in the past."

From AACo's perspective, the short answer is also the two simply have to work together.

"The biggest challenge around making an investment in the Territory is that there is nothing else around it," Mr Strong said.

AACo's new Livingstone processing plant on the outskirts of Darwin was a $100m investment, which processes 20000 head a year.

That's a lot of money in wages and contractors but there was no collective investment in roads or infrastructure to support that original, and ongoing, investment, Mr Strong said.

"If you have organisations willing to invest in bores and roads and telecommunications - all the things that make it possible to run our businesses - then we have to find a way to access and leverage that," he said.

"It's not just a case of there being a fantastic opportunity so let's get some investment here, it's how do we leverage that so we're all much better off right across the board."

Mr Setter was perhaps a little more reserved in his response as to whether co-existance was possible.

"I don't think we know yet,” he said.

"The water resources under our properties are very important for our company.

"If we can get confidence there, then hopefully we can move forward to get some great long term benefits from the gas industry.

"The hope is certainly that we can co-exist and we can share in the spoils at both a business and community level.

"But you can't unscramble an egg so let's make sure it's right before we kick off."

CPC supports the land holder’s power of veto to say no to access.

The right of choice was what would bring people to the table to negotiate at this stage, Mr Setter said.

"Until we have clear rules in place we need that right in place to move forward," he said.

CPC is 95 per cent owned by UK private equity but is Australian-managed and saw it as very important to act and behave as an Australian company, Mr Setter said.

There were opportunities for both Australian and foreign capital in Australian agriculture but "that capital has a real choice on where it goes," he said.

"Money goes to where there is confidence," he said.

"We have customer confidence but political stability is also important.

“And we need to be able to offer some excitement and a bit of risk and reward."

HALF the ringers currently being trained at both CPC and AACo are women.

Both Mr Strong and Mr Setter agreed there were challenges with gender equality in agriculture.

But the answer was not in counting the number of men and women in a certain location at a certain time, Mr Strong said.

"It's about how we treat people as individuals and how we attract  people," he said.

"We actually don't do anything specific (at AACo) to attract men or women, rather we try very hard to attract the best we can find.

"We can't be naive about the challenges that do exist but it's not about trying to make people the same, rather it's about being fair.

"Equal opportunity is not having the same number - it's making sure that if someone presents themselves for a role, they are considered on their merits."

Mr Setter agreed.

At CPC, the best person gets the job and there are no barriers to that, he said.

"We have female representation on our board, in our senior executive team in both Australia and Indonesia, as station managers and head stockmen and they are all there 100 per cent there because they are the best person for the job," he said.

AACo's Livingstone abattoir does not currently send product to China, rather it targets the United States and closer Asian markets.

China does, however, feature in future plans.

While the headlines from last week's joint statement, which boosted access to China for Australian beef, screamed $400 million extra exports, Mr Strong pointed out Australia actually does not have enough meat to supply the markets it currently sends to.

"As an industry, we are two or three million cows down from where we were a few years ago," he said.

"If we send $400m extra worth of beef to China it will have to be taken from somewhere else.

"So this is actually about moving export product around and the drivers of taking advantage of that access to China will be price and demand in market.”

There was no doubt some of Australia's key beef markets were struggling with the price of Australian beef at the moment, Mr Setter said.

"So we are going to have to work through that a little bit and there will be challenges there," he said.

There would be markets where volume drops as result of the cattle shortage, he said.

Mr Setter sees opportunities still existing in Indonesia.

It was a huge market with average beef consumption still low.

There were some lumps and bumps at the moment getting live cattle in but the decision this year to lift weights (from a 350 kilogram to 450kg maximum average per shipment) would start to flow through soon, Mr Setter said.

"It means we don't have to double handle and draft cattle as much and that has put a lot of confidence into everyone's business," he said.

"We can get back to cattle standing in a paddock eating."