Politicians across the country now feel it necessary to intervene and yes, interfere with the way the dairy industry is structured, how it is managed and how it is run.
Nobody wants to ask for outside help. Certainly, our farmers would much prefer to fix their own problems and have in the past expected their leaders to do so.
But the time for hoping for the dairy industry to be fixed internally has passed.
In the past few weeks, QDO has submitted three separate submissions to the Australian Government - a review into the Research Development Corporation (RDC) system; the Senate Inquiry into the performance of the dairy industry and its profitability since deregulation, and feedback on the exposure draft of the Mandatory Code of Conduct.
Three major reviews and notices to remedy that tells us that the government no longer has faith in the nation's dairy industry to fix itself.
The Australian Dairy Key Directions Statement released by the Dairy Plan Committee on November 1 should have unequivocally shown that the dairy industry has got itself together.
The five key priority statements in this document are meant to show us that our industry leaders have taken exactly what they were told in consultation and are addressing the key issues that were blatantly obvious to everyone involved.
I'm yet to be convinced.
An awful lot of money and resources have been poured into getting the Dairy Plan to this point. However, the Key Directions Statements do not tell us anything new.
They certainly don't give any clue as to how the lead organisations intend to put plans into actions that can turn our industry around.
So, if the Dairy Plan is not our industry's silver bullet, then we need our politicians to intervene and fix the market imbalance and lack of profit in our industry.
- Queensland Dairyfarmers' Organisation is the peak advocacy organisation representing the interests of dairy farmers across Queensland.
