It’s usual to see political figures make an appearance at Queensland’s biggest agricultural show and last Friday it was the federal opposition that was making its presence felt at the Ekka.
Shadow Agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon was leading a charge that included opposition Resources and Northern Australia, Immigration and Border Protection, and Rural and Regional Australia representatives, as well as Senator Kim Carr.
Top of the agenda for Mr Fitzgibbon, apart from taking in the sights of centre ring, was to hold a round table meeting with key beef sector stakeholders.
“It’s a strongly-held view of mine that you need the whole-of government and whole-of-supply chain talking together, and this will be my model in government,” he said.
Taking place before the Barnaby Joyce citizenship bombshell dropped, Mr Fitzgibbon was still very much on the front foot, saying that for everyone in the industry to meet their objectives, every point in the supply chain needs to operate successfully.
“Barnaby treats everything beyond the supply chain as the enemy, processors in particular,” he said. “A professional processing sector that can pay a good wage can support a local workforce.”
He said the main outcome of the three hour meeting was to agree to meet again with a narrower focus, concentrating on quarantine inspection costs, processing needs, and producer leadership.
“The industry is making steps there,” he said, referring to the address by Australian Country Choice managing director David Foote to the Rural Press Club Ekka breakfast the previous day.