Pioneer of the
Australian Iron Ore
Industry

PGA Convention 5 October 2023
PGA President’s Address – TONY SEABROOK

It has been almost ten years since I became President of the PGA
and over forty since I became a Member.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge, and I have had the
privilege of working with extraordinary people within the
association. We have done battle with regulators, with
government bureaucracy and politicians who seem to
unrelentingly dream up their vision of what will be good for us. I
often wonder whether some of these policies are the product of
ill-informed naivety, arrogance or pure political manoeuvring for
votes. A common theme of too much Government Policy has
been the economic harm that they might do to our industry.
Consider the recent Qatar Airlines decision, it’s impact on chilled
lamb exports out of WA and Minister King’s refusal to appear
before a Parliamentary Enquiry into this matter.
I initially joined the PGA to fight the acquisition of lamb at
slaughter by a government appointed authority the “lamb
board”.
There existed many boards for many things at that time – the egg
board, the potato board, the wheat board…. if I carted my wool
to Perth on my own truck it was a criminal activity, as was
engaging a contractor to cart my fertiliser, these products were
mandated by the Government to be transported on rail as a form
of protection for the State-owned rail system.
Then we had the reserve price scheme for wool – 5 million bales
of wool in expensive storage purchased by growers via a levy that
eventually rose to 20% of the value of their clip to fund this
scheme. The PGA stood alone in the whole of Australia calling for
an end to this folly – eventually we prevailed but the
repercussions of that stockpile hung over the wool industry for
over a decade. This did immeasurable long-term harm.
About the same time our State Labour Government, on the
advice of the Department of Agriculture and without industry
consultation, sold our main auction sale yards. The department
had decided on our behalf that the open cry auction system was
no longer required. Eventually and very reluctantly the state
government was forced by the PGA to use the proceeds from the
sale of the Midland sale yards to build the facility at Muchea.
Three big ones in a row lamb board gone! Reserve Price Scheme
gone! New Saleyards! In every one of these confrontations good
people have stepped up within the PGA and unrelentingly
prosecuted the case for common sense and a just outcome. We
do tend to carry the day.
Then on to the vital task of reforming the Grains industry.
Massive opposition arose against deregulation largely from
growers due to fear of the free market and where this may take
them.
The first win was freedom to trade domestically in wheat, then
freedom to export Barley and Lupins and then the abolition of
the AWB’s power as a sole exporter in 2008.
The opening up to free trade has put millions of dollars into the
pockets of individual growers thanks to the persistence and
dedication of the PGA.
Seemingly all very straightforward stuff. However, something
else was beginning to happen, the beginning of a change in
public attitudes and societal expectation and this is making our
world a very different place.
At this point let us not forget Bob Hawke’s Bicentenary
commitment on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 1988 to
all Australians and concerning the country’s future – “there is no
hierarchy of descend, there must be no privilege of origin, the
commitment to Australia is all.”
It began quietly with the Mabo Decision of 1993.
Indigenous land rights, ILUA’s and the creation of an industry
now consuming 100 million dollars a day, 37 billion a year is a
burden on all Australians and this industry is not delivering the
desired or expected outcomes.
Vegans and animal activists have gained credibility in the media.
TV coverage of slaughter practices in Indonesia resulted in the
banning of cattle exports to that country. Massive damage was
done as the federal government overreacted. The PGA was an
instrumental part of relentless industry pressure that saw the
Minister’s decision reversed and eventually the trade resumed
but at huge expense to all parties.
We now find ourselves entering a world where we are told we
need a “social licence” to produce food. Our farming practices
are coming under intense scrutiny at every point. A large number
of the very necessary chemicals we use are under threat as are
many livestock systems – intensive poultry, pigs and feedlots are
being targeted by activists. Live export of sheep is about to be
banned at huge cost to the Western Australian agricultural
industry and the cattle industry is deeply worried they will be
next.
All because some often ill-informed but very noisy groups are
using their influence in the inner-city electorates to bully
Government. The result is policies that will do great harm to the
farmers who feed 25 million Australians and over 50 million
people overseas. In a recent submission to the Federal
Government on food security in Australia, the PGA stated that
the greatest threat to food security is actually, Government
Policy.
The agricultural industry is feeling threatened. Aside from the
activists and the foolishness of the so-called “social licence”, we
have a government prosecuting its populist social agenda rather
than being honest with its people and putting the good of the
country as the primary purpose.
The PGA has further been attempting to engage with this state
government to implement meaningful reforms to the Lands Act
to provide Pastoralists with a more secure lease over their
properties. Secure Tenure would encourage them and their
bankers to invest knowing that those investments are protected
into the future. We called this “automatic right of renewal”. The
currently offered range land lease does not achieve this. Serious
secure investment in the rangelands would be a game changer
and bring new prosperity and jobs to remote Western Australia.
This brings me to the Fitzroy River Basin with its staggering water
flow, soils and climate. The potential for development and the
jobs that would come with it, is massive. One river controlled by
one state. An average of 15 Sydney Harbours of freshwater to the
ocean.
The state government has created another National Park, no
dams on the river or its tributaries and a hat full of ranger jobs.
The people of the North, indigenous or otherwise, want to see
real change and improvement in their living standards and the
PGA supports this unequivocally. A vital need to achieve this is
jobs, real jobs and the CSIRO report on irrigation in the Fitzroy
Basin and greater Kimberley area indicated the potential for
thousands of these jobs.
State government implementing its current plan for the
Kimberley will be an enormous, wasted opportunity to change
lives and enhance prosperity for the people of the North.
The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act in WA and the Voice
federally have been incredibly divisive and threatening to many
on both sides, whereas the new Federal IR laws have the
potential to be very destructive to business across the board.
Words like “progressive”, “social justice” and “wages theft” are
used to disguise a subversive attack on employers that may in
the longer term do great harm to the employment prospects of
younger generations. This attack began in the 1980’s and has
been unrelenting ever since. As evidence ask what happened to
our vast manufacturing industries as one by one they succumbed
to the cost of doing business in Australia. Unions, regulation, red
tape the main culprits as Australia became an uncompetitive
economy. Our standard of living is now totally dependent upon
the income from finite extractive industry and primary
production which, mind you, we do incredibly efficiently.
Our agriculture has survived today because it operates at World’s
best practice, at the cutting edge of technological development,
leading the world in innovation.
I must applaud the work of the IPA in applying both a magnifying
glass and a blowtorch to Government, both State and Federal.
Their recent report on the vast overreach of regulation and red
tape in WA is outstanding.
As said often before, we survive not because of Government but
in spite of it.
As an Association we have done much. The future sometimes
appears daunting with threats from many angles but as always,
we will rise to the occasion for if not us, who else??