Conference images 1. Adam Jenkins, UDV President 2. C hris Griffin, UDV Member 3. V in Delahunty, UDV Manager 4. L eft to right: UDV Regional Membership Coordinators Peter Costello, Alison Lee and Ebony Arms. 5. UDV - Gardiner Dairy Foundation Young Farmer Breakfast. 6. Left to right: Gardiner Dairy Foundation UDV 2017 NZ Study Tour Group at the Young Farm, Ashlee Hammond, UDV Policy Adviser, Janelle Fisher, Oonagh Kilpatrick, UDV Policy
Cross commodity resolutions affecting all VFF members passed at UDV conference include:
Councillor, Evan Campbell, Mary Harney, Gardiner Dairy Foundation CEO, Bruce Kefford, Gardiner Chairman, Alistair Harris, Denise Jones, Nick Minogue and Lauren Peterson. 7. L eft to right: New UDV Policy Councillor for Region 9, Lauren Peterson and outgoing Councillor for Region 9, Nick Renyard.
• T hat the UDV demand a review of the impact of Feed in Tariffs and the UDV demand existing agreements are maintained and are not changed to the financial detriment of the user, even when additional/new forms of power generation changes are made
8. L eft to right: UDV Vice President, John Versteden and UDV Policy Councillors Daryl Hoey and Gordon Nicholas. 9. UDV members voting on resolutions.
• T hat the UDV call upon COAG to prepare and action an energy supply and delivery plan to support the dairy industry and all other Australian industries and rural communities, and economies. Ensuring that infrastructure is upgraded to not only meet and protect our current needs, but also provide the foundation for future thriving rural communities and economies for the next 50 years • T hat the UDV express condemnation of all political parties and politicians in these parties due to their lack of action in regard to the delivery of secure electricity • T hat the UDV continually lobby the Federal Government to reserve an appropriate amount of Australian drilled gas for use in Australia 6
• T he Macalister branch calls on the State and Federal Governments to take the issue of the impact of Q fever in the dairy industry seriously, by working together to: o P rovide funding for a state wide program of pre-screening and vaccination clinics for dairy farming families and their employees and
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o List the Q Vax vaccine on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme • T hat the UDV lobbies the Minister for Local Government to mandate that all rural shires have wards to ensure better representation for dairy farmers • T he UDV to look into an overhaul of the current agriculture education, with the view to facilitate the needs of our future generations
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• T he VFF develop a membership option for dairy farm employees.
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