NFF & Labor: a breakfast brouhaha the line in the sand

The AFR reported that Mr Albanese and Mr Watt appeared to be "cranky, really grumpy" during a verbal stoush in a private meeting with the NFF leadership following the ambulatory protest that was triggered by the government's May 11 announcement to ban live sheep by sea exports.

The motivation behind the leaking of the meeting and its true temperature aside, ACM-Agri understands that the Labor heavyweights stressed their desire to remain engaged with farmers through the lobby group and encouraged the NFF to look at the bigger picture and what Labor had delivered for producers through other policy programs when picking its battles.

The items the PM and Mr Watt listed included a heavy investment to create a sustainable biosecurity funding model, reestablishing beef, wine and barley exports to China through the removal of punitive tariffs and reopening Indonesian cattle trading following Foot and Mouth and Lumpy Skin Disease scares that threatened to derail the industry.

The pulling out of a free trade agreement with the European Union that would have filled Treasury coffers with the proceeds of minerals transactions because it was a bad deal for Australian farmers and increased diplomacy to open market access in India and South-East Asia might also have been mentioned had they remembered to do so.

The confrontation though was no spot fire but the end of a long-ago lit cord fuse that has slowly but surely been burning towards a nitroglycerine ignition.

There is a lot to unpack since the afterglow of Labor's May 2022 election victory when the party and the NFF found themselves in an odd couple scenario that caused Mr Watt to suggest that previous Labor Agriculture Ministers had perhaps not enjoyed such good-tempered relations with NFF House.

Even conservative politicians in the so-called cockies corner of parliament appeared jealous. But the honeymoon faded as these things are wont to do and the groups were soon jabbing and jiving and feeling each other out, like smart boxers in the early rounds of a title fight.

The deeper into the bout though the icier the NFF has become as one-inch punches delivered from the workplace, environmental and climate change and energy portfolios in particular left stinging welts.

The widening chasm between the farm group and government was not helped by Fiona Simson's steady hand letting go of the wheel after stepping down as NFF president after two terms.

In a three-way ballot, Mallee mixed farmer Jochinke trumped AgForce president Georgie Somerset and Western Australia's Tony York to take over.

Jochinke had been the organisation's vice-president after cutting his agri-politics teeth through the Victorian Farmers Federation and his matter-of-fact style has built a solid base of grassroots support particularly within his own commodity of southern grain growers.

But there lies the intersection. Simson came into the job during a crippling drought and left after sustained extreme weather events somehow - overall - fell ag's way and propelled it to become an $83b industry and despite economic headwinds and the ravages of the COVID-era, disrupted supply chains and crippling worker shortages.

While winners are grinners, a myriad of reasons headed by the nation's food security forced the NFF and the then Coalition and new Labor governments to also park any old grudges, grievances and stereotypes and work closely during the 2020 to 2023 years.

So it surprised many that things came to a head so soon after the leadership transition, with Mr Watt himself blindsided on October 25 last year when advised that Mr Jochinke would be spinning backfists in his first day in the new role the following morning in launching a campaign "against anti-farming policies" at the NFF annual conference.

Mr Watt then spent several hours rewriting what was a finalised speech to open the event into a withering defence of the government's record.

Boiled down the campaign Mr Jochinke unveiled wanted to stop voluntary water buybacks in the Murray Darling Basin, the biosecurity protection levy and the live sheep export ban, rejig the government's renewable rollout to protect arable land, shape the government's revamped environmental laws and shake-up competition laws.

There is no doubt that each of these has merit but the exercise burnt bridges across that chasm. The Rubicon had been crossed.

The background noise is said to be that, while the NFF were aspiring to be a voice of reason in a sea of uncertainty, coat-tuggers wanted to revert to type, planting an ear worm around a perceived lack of runs on the board despite its cosiness with Labor and that the party had never been the farmers friend and so it might as well go down swinging.

Whatever the case these things are always a fine line and while the NFF might have congratulated itself following its pincer movement, Mr Watt was comforted by the numerous text messages of support he received from industry stakeholders sitting in the audience during the new president's speech - saying the tact was a surprise to many.

The government has since formed the view following hundreds of meetings with a range of stakeholders that the NFF's muscle flex has "split the membership".

The incongruity is philosophical if nothing else.

The NFF tactic to start with a scattergun list of demands and a winner takes all swagger did not compute with Labor apparatchiks accustomed to the union movement's blueprint.

This tactic usually starts with a singular issue or focus, these small wins are then used to build momentum through shop floors to fans the flames and galvanise disparate unionists into hitting the streets with a unified voice on a list of unique problems.

Meanwhile, the orchestrated May 15 breakfast speech exodus took place at the precise moment Mr Watt, who was addressing the Croplife post-budget event at Parliament House on how the government intended to build Australia's sustainable agriculture sector, turned to address the live sheep ban.

Mr Jochinke and Mr Mahar were joined in the walkout by NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin, AgForce chief executive Mick Guerin, WA Pastoralists and Graziers president Tony Seabrook, WA Farmers president John Hassell, as well as the chief executives of Cattle Australia, the Australian Livestock Exporters' Council and Sheep Australia, along with several NFF staffers.

Some of those who participated were wearing specially-printed t-shirts bearing the message: #keepthesheep.

Labor announced that Australia's $77 million live sheep by sea export trade would be shut down from May 1, 2028, contingent on the successful passage of supporting legislation, while also revealing a $107m transition package for industry stakeholders.

Following the walkout, Mr Watt said he had met with Mr Jochinke and Mr Mahar the day prior to discuss future collaboration opportunities and was "not too concerned about their stunts".

"While a handful of NFF leadership and their staff walked out, a couple of hundred ag leaders - including many NFF members - stayed," he said.

Meanwhile, two days after the breakfast brouhaha the NFF Members Council voted to carry three motions, including that the lobby group "no longer has confidence in the Albanese Government to act in the interests of Australian agriculture".

That it believes the live sheep ban call was made "without considering the scientific and industry data presented in the consultation process to the detriment of all sectors of agriculture" and that it rejects the current industry assistance package.

It was also reported by The Weekly Times that, while no dissenting voices were raised in the verbal vote, it was not a unanimous decision after some council members decided to abstain from the vote.

The NFF told ACM-Agri that "there were no objections, no dissent and we are not aware of anyone abstaining".

However, it also said that "we're not disclosing any more than that and even if we wanted to, we don't record who votes for what".

Mr Jochinke told The AFR that the post-breakfast meeting had been "robust".

It went on to say that "while there were rumours Senator Watt had threatened to freeze the NFF out of policy considerations, Mr Jochinke said this was not the case".

"We want to work with the government on policy," he said.

"There are a lots of fences to be mended, but also we want it understood agriculture won't be pushed around."

He also wrote an open letter to Mr Albanese earlier this week asking why ag was being ignored.

The government has since also pointed out that besides the billions in agriculture funding generally, the NFF itself accepted more than $6.3 million in funding in 2022-23 to deliver various programs.

What will never be known is the government's real enthusiasm to end the live sheep by sea trade. The Greens pushed and Labor adopted the policy in the shadows of a federal election and following a single voyage that led to thousands of animal deaths in harrowing circumstances.

Mr Albanese said "my word is my bond" soon after the 2022 election in indicating that his government would not backflip on election promises, but its subsequent walking back on stage three tax cuts realistically meant that there could be no more and any reprieve for the live sheep trade was lost at that moment.

But since the hardline stance was made in 2018 the industry has cleaned itself up and even the hardest of hearts within the party for battlers and bleeders and second chances might have been second-guessing the setting.

In referring to last week's meeting, Mr Watt said while he does not "divulge discussions in private meetings" he was keen to keep working with the NFF and believes the government "has a strong track record" of helping farmers.

"We've delivered record biosecurity funding from taxpayers and importers to protect farmers. We reopened trade with our biggest trading partner, which was destroyed by the former Coalition Government, and we've opened more new market access than ever before," he said.

"We're rebuilding the ag workforce after years of neglect, both before and during COVID and assisting farmers adapt to climate change, rather than pretend it is not happening."

Less than a week after calling the no confidence motion, the NFF attended a May 23 agriculture industry sustainability summit in Toowoomba organised by Mr Watt.

Mr Mahar released a statement following the event that said "the support ministers Chris Bowen and Murray Watt outlined on agriculture's role in the transition to net zero was reassuring and showed they had listened to farmers".

It is also believed Mr Mahar received some sideline advice at the event from farmers who appeared unhappy with the aggressiveness of the organisation's campaigning over recent months.

But the release itself exposed a significant issue eating at the relationship, that the NFF is conciliatory and confrontational depending on the issue is not so much the issue, but pubically regaling on some topics and butting heads on others - sometimes on the same day - is becoming a problem in the nation's capital. Particularly when the lobby group continually seeks private meetings with the government.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said while he was pleased to see the NFF "stand by its convictions" in holding the walkout, he was "surprised" by such a move given the organisation had traditionally been more placid in its approach.

The question on many lips though is where to now for the NFF?

After a October 2023 campaign launch, walkout, vote of no confidence and open letter it needs to keep the campaign fresh and all roads are heading towards a pre-election protest in Canberra.

Or at the least a large-scale protest in Perth to specifically target the live sheep ban that would now need to be after legislation is introduced into parliament.

What else is there?

If that route is taken the high-water mark is the 45,000 farmers and a few horses that assembled on the lawn of old Parliament House in 1985 in an ultimately successful bid to reverse Labor tax policy.

A big problem is that the turnout for a recent anti-renewables rally in Canberra driven by farm groups and, later, cookers in Canberra was only a few hundred people - and that is far short of Australia's 85,000 farmers.