Originally, we excitedly planned to hold the Convention, Quality Awards presentation and AGM in Far North Queensland this year. But with the pandemic we clearly needed to rejig our plans and put together the AGM to accommodate the various travel and gathering restrictions that are currently in place.

Fortunately, our co-operative’s rules accommodate for a general meeting held in multiple locations linked by on-line conferencing.  There are clearly some differences and obligations in how the meeting must be run, including that any speaker must be able to be heard by all others present at each location.  For those of you inclined to read the details, the DFMC Rules are available on our website at https://dfmc.org.au/operation/dfmc-constitution/ – Part 4, Division 2 Conduct of General Meetings on page 22.

We are planning to host the meeting as an online conference using Microsoft Teams from our Geelong offices on November 17 and have satellite sites for members to attend with DFMC staff, Directors or WRAC members managing venues.  So, whilst the event in FNQ would have been a terrific opportunity for members to visit a beautiful and unique dairying region, this format will afford more members the ability to participate via satellite sites.

In addition, members will also be able to participate remotely via the online conferencing system from your own home or business. However members participating via their own home or business will be attending the meeting as a guest and will only be able to vote by proxy. In the interests of public health and safety, we think it best if most people participate remotely and do not physically attend the meeting.

Will I be able to vote?

Yes. If you can physically attend the Geelong office or one of the satellite sites you will be able to vote as we will have nominated scrutineers to formally record the “show of hands” or indeed a more formal poll if called. If you participate remotely from your own home or business, you will only be able to vote by proxy.

Will I be able to speak at the meeting or ask questions of the board?

Yes. The platform we plan to use has very good functionality to indicate you wish to speak.  Protocols will be announced before the meeting and the Chairman will manage the questions in a manner similar to a physical meeting.  All attendees will be able to hear your question. The Standing Orders at General Meetings (Item 53 of the Rules) will be adhered to, however, in accordance with DFMC’s Rules, the Chairman may depart from the Standing Orders if this is for the benefit of the members or the Co-operative as a whole.

Will there be any special or unusual co-operative issues voted on at the meeting?

No. It is anticipated that the meeting will only address and vote on “ordinary business” such as the minutes of the last general meeting and the audited financial statements for the previous financial year. These are outlined in Section 49(1) of the Rules.

Covid-19 restrictions will need to be complied with.

In order to ensure everyone remains safe, we will need to comply with any Covid-19 requirements such as social distancing and limits in respect of public gatherings at the Geelong office and each satellite site of the AGM. Accordingly, if you are planning to attend in person at one of the locations, we will ask you to pre-register prior to the meeting.

In due course we will share specifics on where, how, and when with all members via mail including formal meeting notices and proxy forms.  Of course, if you have any questions please contact Tony, Dom, Dan or Mark.

 

DFMC recently made representation to the latest Dairy Senate Inquiry. The matter was referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee in October 2019 for inquiry and the final report is now set down for November 2020.

The inquiry is into the performance of Australia’s dairy industry and the profitability of Australian dairy farmers since deregulation in 2000, with particular reference to:

1. the ability of Dairy Australia to act independently and support the best interests of both farmers and processors;
2. the accuracy of statistical data collected by Dairy Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics;
3. the funding of Dairy Australia and the extent of its consultation and engagement on the expenditure of levies revenue;
4. the merits of tasking the ACCC to investigate how it can regulate the price of milk per litre paid by processors to dairy farmers to ensure a viable dairy industry;
5. alternative approaches to supporting a viable dairy sector;
6. the introduction of a mandatory industry code of practice; and
7. any related matters.

The DFMC submission was made in person by Chairman Andrew Burnett and separate contributions from DFMC farmers from far north Queensland James Geraghty and Johnny Gallo.  The following is a combined excerpt from Andrew’s submission.

It is DFMC’s view the major retailers have the ability to “loss lead” in some regions on a couple of product lines like milk, and make it up from the other 40,000 or more products lines sold.   Further to this the cost of servicing smaller regional retail outlets is clearly much higher than metropolitan areas. 

Generic milk now saturates the market with coffee shops, restaurants and school tuckshops using Coles and Woolworths as a wholesaler as it is cheaper to buy milk there than have it delivered.    Shelf space, internal restocking and re-ordering policies all influence and manipulate the volume of generic milk that is sold in comparison to branded milk.  Is this an abuse of market power, dumping, loss leading?

The dairy industry has been impacted materially from this national retail pricing approach. Acknowledging the different farming systems, farm sizes and regional, climatic issues, equals greater cost of production.  Queensland has a farm gate price approximately 15cpl higher than Victoria.  When coupled with a large regional footprint driving distribution costs higher, the fresh milk supply chain is not sustainable.  The national retail price is actually lower than the cost to supply milk in and processors, and in turn farmers, are losing millions of dollars to stay in this market.

When I read through ACCC guidelines and legislation there is little to no reference to state or regional boundaries or acknowledgment of the difference in markets.  It could be suggested that there are different markets for dairy commodities and fresh drinking milk, which has a more regional boundary for markets.   The ACCC did find in some regions milk was sold at a loss.  I believe that the “test” for dumping, loss leading and the abuse of market power, needs to be carried out on a state by state basis.

The full transcripts are available here.