May 12, 2019

In February 2018, Labor’s national president, Mark Butler, urged the labour movement “to have a no-holds-barred debate about the place of unions in Australia”. It seems the Shadow Minister for Agriculture Joel Fitzbibbon has taken on this suggestion with creative enthusiasm, except he has skipped the debate bit, and given half a chance, will be going straight for implementation. The Australian agricultural industry has long been on notice that Fitzgibbon is not happy with how

I read with interest the PGA response to Rhys Turton’s open letter to PGA president Tony Seabrook, which appeared in the Countryman last week. Turton has called for the politics of the old bulls to be left in the paddock, and urges a poll to be conducted on the merits of establishing a new single farm organisation to take on the anti-agricultural forces that are building on the horizon. As usual the PGA showed no