Capable hands for WA dairy

As the Australian dairy industry prepares for significant change driven by the Australian Dairy Plan (ADP), the Western Australian industry has reinstated some capable hands to guide the local response.

At the Western Dairy Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Busselton yesterday, Metricup dairy farmer and former Australian Dairy Farmers vice chair, Peter Evans, was elected to the Western Dairy Board.

The Western Dairy directors met immediately after the AGM and formally appointed Mr Evans to the position of chair and elevated Busselton dairy farmer Robin Lammie to the position of vice chair.

A four-person Western Dairy Board selection panel chaired by WAFarmers dairy section president Michael Partridge also recommended the reappointment of specialist director Brian Piesse.

Mr Evans, Mr Lammie and Mr Piesse join current directors Nick Brasher, Andrew Jenkins and Scott Hamilton in governing the WA dairy farmers’ levy spend in WA.

The changes came as Waroona dairy farmer and chair for the past financial year, Vicki Fitzpatrick, announced her reluctant resignation due to family commitments.

With the ADP expected to be finalised in February 2020, the challenge for the Western Dairy Board will be to oversee the implementation of ADP recommendations at the local level.

Western Dairy’s outgoing chair Vicki Fitzpatrick congratulated Mr Evans on his appointment and wished new and existing directors every success in the future.

Mrs Fitzpatrick said the industry’s coming transition period also coincided with the retirement of the Board’s long-standing executive officer Esther Jones, who marks 20 years with Western Dairy this month.

Esther will be working with the Board through the recruitment of her successor, and for an extended handover period to ensure 20 years of corporate memory is well documented.

“Esther will stay on to support the Board, her successor and the industry on a project-basis until the completion of her current executive officer contract in June 2020,” Mrs Fitzpatrick explained.

“While this marks the end of a long era of professional service as an executive officer, we hope Esther will remain actively involved in the industry that she has served with such energy and dedication over the past two decades.”

View the Western Dairy Annual Report 2018-19.