I've found it really confusing reading about all the happenings at the Dairy Levy Poll Advisory Committee or LPAC over the past few weeks. What I thought should be a simple enough process to give farmers a real say over what starts out as their own money, seems to have turned into some sort of bureaucratic mess.
What could be so hard about letting farmers have a fair range of choices available to decide how much levy money comes out of their milk cheque every month?
My thoughts are we don't see value for our levy money in Queensland. Programs seem to be on a never ending repeat and are not that relevant to my farm or our region's needs. While we fill in a never ending list of surveys to convey our preference for topics or even the way to deliver them, it seems to get lost in the "too hard" basket.
Is it really that hard to just listen to grass roots farmers?
Why are compulsory levies taken from Queensland dairy farmers, but fall on deaf ears on how they want them spent?
What sort of options should be on the Dairy Levy Poll?
Well I'm sure some farmers think that Dairy Australia is doing a great job and would like to see more of the same so would support an increase to the levy. Probably a lot are not that interested either way and would be happy to just leave it the same. I know for myself and many of my farming friends we would like a decrease option as well, which I believe would give a true democratic vote to dairy farmers and a proper gauge to dairy Australia if they're doing a good job.
After all the challenges my family has been through on the farm, I'm pretty sure I can make better decisions on how to invest my money on my farm, than someone in an office in Melbourne.
