ATTACK isn’t always the best defence.
That message was hammered home to a roomful of agri political warhorses at Friday’s Rural Press Club lunch in Brisbane.
In one corner was Katherine Teh-White, the managing director of Futureye, a Melbourne-based consultancy that specialises in developing strategies for industries and companies looking to secure their social licence to operate.
In the other corner was a who’s who of Australian agribusiness and farm advocacy, most who are currently engaged in the high-stakes battle to win community and government support for their interests.
According to Ms Teh-White, some are doing it well, while others still have a lot to learn.
Ms Teh-White says that’s not surprising. The full glare of community expectation has come relatively late to agriculture when compared with other industries like mining.
Her basic advice is that when your industry is under attack – the adversarial approach is counter-productive.
“In these circumstances the basic human instinct is to fight, to correct the argument being made against you with facts and to overwhelm with power,” she said.
“That is definitely not the right answer and only escalates the problem.”
Ms Teh-White calls that approach a ‘soldier’s mentality’, where battle strategies are reactive, developed on gut instinct and where objectives are short term and narrowly focused.
Her advice is to be a scout – look for new ideas, look for allies, build networks, be adaptive to change and take a long term view to win the war with as few casualties as possible.
If you attack, deny and defend, you will lose the battle.
Her message comes as AgForce prepares to marshall its forces next Thursday for a march on Queensland Parliament House in George St protesting the Palaszczuk Government’s proposed vegetation management laws.
The last time graziers marched through Brisbane protesting tree laws was in 2005 against the then Beattie Labor Government. That march was organised by Property Rights Australia.
While not naming AgForce’s protest specifically, Ms Teh-White said the risk with such action was an erosion of public trust in farming.
“On the outside to people who have no knowledge of the issues it looks like a fight,” she said.
AgForce CEO Charles Burke, who was at the lunch, said he believed his organisation had the balance right in explaining the need for fair laws for farmers and taking direct action to deliver the message.