Page 6 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Power plays paralyse industry bodies
READING inaugural 1979 while working as
having a small number of essential supporters, as it makes for fewer people to satisfy to keep control.
large coalition of busi- nesses and not a select few.
be based in Canberra.
I fondly recall in early 1980 flying sandwiched between Sir Donald – the inaugural NFF President – and Wolfe to Canberra, where I was transferred to establish and run an agricultural news bureau for Farmers Weekly and Stock Journal (South
Cant
Comment
by BRENDON CANT
Australian Pork Lim- ited chief executive officer Brian Ram- say’s weekly emailed ‘thought starter’, penned under his title of managing director of Inovact Consulting in Canberra, got me thinking about my ex- periences working with and watching agricul- tural and rural industry organisations.
a journalist at the then Farmers Weekly news- paper, owned by one of Western Australia’s two farm industry organi- sations, then known as Farmers’ Union of WA.
When these winners have control of revenue flows, they will act to redistribute money to re- ward friends and replace dissenters.
Business leaders need to watch for the red flags that say the governance arrangements for their industry institutions must change.
The other was Pasto- ralists and Graziers As- sociation.
It’ s a cynical view but resonates just a little too well with what we see happening in contempo- rary and historical polit- ical regimes of all types.
Can you have a direct say and influence in your industry organisa- tion?
Australia).
Australia’s farm leaders
This week it was ti- tled ‘The dark side of industry leadership’.
In 1982, the Farmers’ Union morphed into Primary Industry Asso- ciation and these days is simply known as WA- Farmers, or more affec- tionately WAF.
via his February 22 com- mentary piece.
I have written a lot about the benefit of in- dustry organisations in- novating faster so they can create more value
for more businesses.
If innovation is not happening when it should, do you know the
Or do select groups have control of policy decisions and the money?
had finally recognised the need for a unified body and acted on it.
My working and watching brief really kick-started back in
Before I delve briefly into my experiences, I’ll share Brian’s with you,
underlying problem? Look carefully, and it might reveal the problem is the dark side of industry leadership: people are acting to re-
The problem is that industry bodies can be- come like regimes and represent the interests of a few, rather than in- dustry businesses as a whole.
So, back we go to Au- gust 1979, when I started work at Farmers’ Union at 239 Adelaide Terrace in Perth.
Such a unified position – reached admittedly by several stakeholders having to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table – was felt to be the most practical way of achieving real gains for farmers, especially at the federal government level.
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tain power.
In the Dictator’ s Hand-
When that happens, industry leaders start to behave like political leaders and parties seeking to gain or retain power.
President at the time was Wolfe Boetcher – a tough uncompromising self-made German immi- grant farmer from Ajana, in country north of Ger- aldton that was as tough and uncompromising as Wolfe himself.
book, political scien- tists Bueno de Mesquita and Alistair Smith start from a single assertion – Leaders do whatever keeps them in power.
The insight is that if the innovation problem for industry institutions is about power seeking by vested interests, then the solutions are about governance.
Wolfe had replaced Sir Donald Eckersley as president in 1975 and not too long after his ascendancy moved a motion to dissolve the organisation, due to a re- duction in membership and members not paying their subscriptions.
The NFF has essen- tially done a decent job in its 40 years, albeit here in WA we still battle with two farm organisa- tions – Pastoralists and Graziers Association and WA F – that for the most part are civil when in the same room, but have shown over the years that they can never con- summate a committed relationship and ‘live’ together.
They don’ t care about the ‘national interest’ – or even their subjects – unless they have to.
Their findings basi- cally say that political leaders can attain and stay in power longer by
It is about making sure that the industry body is designed to empower a
This threat had a pro- found effect, resulting in subscriptions and mem- berships rising.
A civil union between the two just never hap- pens, despite the best in- tentions of many peace brokers over many years.
Page 6 – Australian Pork Newspaper, March 2021
Back we go to August 1979, when I started work at Farmers’ Union at 239 Adelaide Terrace in Perth.
National farmer unity arguably began with the formation of peak body NFF in 1979. The author was on the spot in Canberra in 1980 to watch and write about how state industry organisations managed to morph into a national body. Leadership and power plays were front and centre.
However, it was in 1979 during Wolfe’s seven-year presidency that fractured state farming politics across Australia eventu- ally precipitated an oc- casionally controversial and adversarial pitch for national unity, with the formation of the National Farmers’ Federation, to
Sadly, this is very often the fate suffered by industry organisa- tion members and stake- holders when personal and ideological power struggles within the or- ganisations take prec- edence over service to members.
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