Following recommendations from an independent review into Horticulture Australia (HAL), the industry-owned body announced last week it would transition in to a grower-owned research and development corporation.
According to ABC Rural, the shake up has come too fast for some farmer groups, who fear they won’t have adequate representation at HAL’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to be held in Cairns on 20 June.
Coinciding with the Ausveg conference in mid-June, farmers told the ABC that they would have difficulty getting to the city in Australia’s far-north east, especially considering the short notice.
'I have a concern that they're doing it with undue haste,' Jan Davis from Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers told ABC Rural. “We needed to have it a bit later on, after we've had time to think about it, and in a Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra location where we have most of these things, so that all of us can get there and have an informed discussion knowing the thoughts that some of our people would have coming into that.'
HAL’s chief executive John Lloyd defended the company’s decision, telling the ABC, “It’s not a rush job. It’s a set timeline.
“Our next Board meeting is on the 19th of June,' he added. 'We have a 21-day period to put a resolution to our members for the EGM.”
HAL represents 43 peak industry bodies, three-quarters of which need to approve the decision to remove them as shareholders in order to allow grower-ownership.
Consulting firm Acil Allen’s review of HAL, released in May, recommended the group transition to a grower-owned RDC to strengthen grower representation, with the board comprised of a 50:50 split between appointed and elected directors.
