23 Nov 2023
Last week was a busy time for me personally and for the Queensland Farmers’ Federation and our members. With this being my first QCL Column as the new President of QFF, I want to say from the outset how proud I am to have been elected succeeding Allan Dingle who stepped down following completion of his four-year tenure in the role.
I was elected Non-Executive Director and Vice President of QFF in 2021 and am pleased to be continuing to contribute to QFF now in the role of President. I extend my thanks to Allan Dingle for his service to the organisation and Queensland agriculture and would like to take this opportunity to welcome returning Non-Executive Director and dairy farmer Kay Tommerup into the Vice President position as well as Georgina Krieg, a Darling Downs cotton grower, who has joined the Board.
We hit the ground running last week with a number of ministerial representations including dinner with Premier the Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk and Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef, the Hon Leanne Linard, QFF Board and Council meetings and celebrations marking National Agriculture Day 2023.
QFF was joined by 180 guests at our now annual National Agriculture Day breakfast event on Friday to celebrate the occasion with keynote speaker, Phil Morle, Main Sequence Ventures, and panellists from the AgTech and Logistics Hub, Cotton Australia, Canegrowers, and Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers focusing on the topic of AgTech.
The discussion explored how technology was shifting global supply chains with emerging opportunities for Australian agriculture to increase agricultural production, add additional value throughout the supply chain and develop completely new industries and products.
The underlying message from the morning centred around the importance of working together to realise the opportunities for agriculture and rural communities. The ‘Moonshot Slide’ was a talking point from the presentations and gave us all food for thought for further discussions at the Celebration of Queensland Agriculture Showcase that followed in the CBD.
It was a great week to not only celebrate agriculture, but to come together with QFF members and stakeholders to connect on respective challenges and opportunities. I was again struck by the power of collaboration, and I look forward to working with the commodity groups QFF represents to build a strong future for their members and for Queensland agriculture.
Agriculture matters to us all. I would like to thank QFF’s members for trusting me to take on this important position not only for QFF but for the Queensland agriculture sector.
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