THE idea of culling a few red meat chief executive officers and setting up a single representative body may have been shelved but claims the leadership and governance system is broken will likely never go away.
The multi-tiered, complicated structure that serves as a framework for industry affairs has long drawn criticisms, particularly around levy funds being wasted by peak groups duplicating each other's roles.
But after two years of widespread consultation, the hiring of independent experts to carve out solutions and a bill in the vicinity of $650,000, it looks set to stay, albeit with a dash of fine-tuning.
The conclusion appears to be: "We can live with complex."
Queensland breeder, backgrounder and finisher Bryce Camm, who has put his hand up many times for leadership roles within the industry, offers an interesting perspective on the subject.
He is today at the helm of the fourth-generation business Camm Agricultural Group and says for most of his life, his family has debated industry politics around the dining room table.
From that, he has come to the conclusion that to effect change, you have to be involved and have an opinion.
"Our industry is dynamic and vibrant but also complex and detailed in meeting the needs of today's 80,000 businesses operating in the red meat space," Mr Camm said.
"The wants and needs of a processor on King Island are very different to that of live exporter in Darwin, a feedlotter in WA or a sheep producer in Victoria.
"This is in much the same way as a teacher in West End is never going to vote with the same intentions as a coal miner in central Queensland."
Democracy is complex. So too is governance, he says.
Indeed, the Australian Government, at its various levels and with the numerous states and local governments, is no different.
"It's a complex layer of arrangements aiming to ensure various interests are met, the appropriate checks and balances are in place, no one takes too much power and all voices have the right to be heard," Mr Camm said.
And the debate around government structures is little different to that which has occurred in the red meat industry.
"We've all heard it said before: 'Remove the states, they are a waste of time'," Mr Camm said.
"The reality is under a federated commonwealth, that will not happen."
The way forward is to select the areas where change can be effected and not focus on the noise around areas where it can not, Mr Camm said.
Red meat's model is not perfect but is it broken and not delivering?
"Emphatically, no," said Mr Camm.
"We have a cabinet on the top, parliament in the middle and departments on the bottom.
"We spent $650,000 to look at evolving a heap of options. When the recommendations were handed down, we quickly ran back to all of our silos and told ourselves nothing was wrong."
This was the 2018-initiated review of the Memorandum of Understanding which oversees red meat industry structures and levy arrangements.
It's key recommendations, handed down in 2019, were bringing together all the lobby groups into one, and also having just one service provider.
There was talk at the time the review would herald the end of the Red Meat Advisory Council, the umbrella organisation which many argued was superfluous.
RMAC's reputation has since been transformed.
At the forefront of fights like vegan food labelling, banks bowing to activists, anti-meat influence in dietary guideline recommendations and over-the-top lobbying for things like meat taxes, the industry's 'umbrella' organisation is seen as vital.
These are the things producers have been crying out for, and were frustrated that, despite a long list of industry CEOs and communications officers, were not being talked about.
"RMAC today is as effective as it has ever been," Mr Camm said.
"The current chair, John McKillop, is doing a fantastic job and so also has the outgoing CEO Reith Parker.
"It's a small and agile team that has cut the budget by 30 per cent and increased output ten-fold.
"Even the hardest stone thrower within our industry would have to bite their tongues at that."
There was more to be done to fine-tune the 'system' but things were indeed moving, Mr Camm argued.
The first stages of implementing one MOU review recommendation - the formation of a single integrity body - were underway.
"We need an independently-funded integrity system that operates all of our collective quality assurance systems," he said.
"RMAC requires more allocation of resources to collectively do the advocating and lobbying for industry that should be done on a united front.
"We have to tackle the conversation about equitable distribution from the fund to all the peak industry councils, so they all have a sustainable future.
"And we need strong, accountable representative bodies that adequately advocate and also ensure the service providers are held accountable for every dollar from the levy payer.
"We should ensure we never let the tail wag the dog. No minister would ever allow a department to tell them what they should be doing and that absolutely should not be the case in our industry."
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