Advocacy - it's a team sport

BY DAN GALLIGANCEO, CANEGROWERS

If you have any spare time at all in this busy harvest season you will be hard pressed to avoid the fact that sport is high on the agenda, with the Paris Olympics kicking off.

Some people hate it, I frankly love the Olympics, in fact I love sport. I love its capacity for demonstrating determination, the human spirit in full force and the real value of teamwork. It is not hard to draw the comparisons and see the value of this teamwork in our priorities here at CANEGROWERS

There is an old adage, “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together”.

This is 100% absolutely the case for agricultural advocacy and in CANEGROWERS we live and breathe that approach in our strategic investments of membership dollars.

We work across the supply chain having some often very difficult conversations with milling companies, milling peak bodies marketers, refiners and some of the world’s biggest food, beverage and grocery brands.

These are often informal but regular, robust conversations that both influence and provide an understanding of our positions.

Formally we have strong relationships, all pulling the oars together through our financial memberships that give us a leadership role within Queensland Farmers’ Federation, the National Farmers’ Federation and the World Association of Beet and Cane Growers – which cover state, national and international policy issues, collaborate across agriculture, share ideas, allow learning opportunities from each other and the chance to share the load.

CANEGROWERS has specific topic-based relationships with Plant Health Australia, the Primary Industries Education Foundation and Bio-Energy Australia we are there to influence, biosecurity, education and bio-energy policies and programs. These groups know exactly what we want because we have worked through our grower led Policy Council to inform our position. We take those positions to these groups, where we work together to achieve supportive outcomes.

We have the myriad of informal networks and connections that our staff facilitate at the district and state levels. Working directly with councils, NRM groups, productivity boards and a range of regional economic development agencies and alliances. This extends right through to the global stage where we bring together the Global Sugar Alliance and the Thai-Australia dialogue and participate in the International Sugar Organisation and the ASEAN+1 trade collaboration.

These relationships are deep-rooted and formed via a range of either paid partnership, informal connections or deliberate strategic collaborations. One single thing is consistent, they are established with a view of working together so that we may deliver better outcomes on our key objectives for the sugarcane growers of Australia.

It is about being clear with what we believe is important from a grower’s perspective and seeking out friends and partners that will help us deliver it. If successful it is truly a team sport that often goes unnoticed.