VFF board rejects a third call for an EGM, this time from dairy farmers

The latest bid - the third - was lodged by a group headed by United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Bernie Free, Winslow.

But he, and VFF members, have since been notified that the latest bid has again been knocked back.

In an email to members the board said it had met recently to "note a request" from a group of members, seeking an extraordinary general meeting to replace the constitutionally elected president and vice president.

"The VFF has determined this request to be defective and notes that this is the third defective call for an EGM, since July 2023," the board said.

"Despite considerable distraction and resource allocations on these invalid EGM requests, the VFF remains steadfast on continuing the renewal of the organisation."

The board said it would not be commenting on the issue, any further, as it focussed on ensuring the organisation was best placed to meet the needs of members, in the future.

The National Farmers Federation recently weighed into the debate.

In a letter to Mr Free, the VFF company secretary said the organisation had considered the documents and found an EGM could not be validly called, "on the basis of the Request Documents as you have submitted".

"While you, of course, may choose to continue to lodge similar documents to the Request Documents, we strongly recommend that you obtain legal advice in the future so that the Board is not wasting valuable organisational resources in assessing faulty documentation, resources that should be directed to the delivery of services to members," the letter said.

Mr Free said his group was now weighing up its options, particularly after the recent annual general meeting.

"We had the court case that was lost, but (the ruling) states a resolution to remove a person as a director, and as a president and vice-president, is valid," Mr Free said.

"We based our 100 signatures off the evidence that was given at the court case and from advice given by some lawyers."

The board had "cursorily batted away" the call for an EGM, he said.

"The board needs to reconsider what the judge said," he said.

"The judge did indicate, in many parts of his ruling, there were plenty of reasons why resolutions one and two (to remove the president and vice-president) are allowed," he said.

"It clearly says those two resolutions were valid - in our request we were not asking to put anyone up (as president and vice-president) as that is the prerogative of the board.

"One is rather perplexed with the board and management, because you ask questions about whether what they are doing is legal or not - they say they have legal advice - but they won't give you any evidence to say what they are doing is correct."

Mr Free said there was "dead silence" when he asked the board what was wrong with the way he was interpreting the law.

"They say we need to operate within the law, and do everything correctly, but when we ask them to 'please explain' why we have done something wrong, there is dead silence."