ENSURING WA farmers remain profitable, efficient and globally competitive is the key priority for newly-appointed Pastoralists and Graziers Association president Tony Seabrook.
This writer met Mr Seabrook only eight days into his first term as president of the PGA at the organisation's new West Perth office last week.
The York farmer steps into the role with more than 30 years of experience with the organisation, taking over the reigns from predecessor of six years Rob Gillam.
Mr Seabrook believes there are significant opportunities for WA primary producers but they are matched with a number of challenges that must be overcome for those opportunities to be realised.
"The biggest issue currently impacting on agriculture is the high cost of production in Australia and its implications for competitiveness," he said.
"I think this whole issue around whether we are going to service Asia or not will be determined by whether we can actually do it profitably or not.
"There might be the biggest market in the world on your doorstep but if you can't market it properly and make a profit out of it then there is not much future.
"We have allowed ourselves to become just too damn expensive to be competitive in a world marketplace."
According to Mr Seabrook, unnecessary red tape, inefficient supply chain management and government interference are significant impediments to Australia's ability to be world competitive.
And he cited payroll tax, stamp duty and government regulation as examples.
"Anything that we do, any inefficiencies, any acts of vandalism by government, have a massive impact on our capacity to compete," he said.
"At the end of the day we must be able to get our product out of the country at the lowest cost possible, and the inputs brought into the country need to be put through at the lowest cost possible.
"Governments need to recognise that if they are going to extract taxes that add cost to what we do, then they are just straight out diminishing our ability to compete.
"We have developed this attitude in Australia that people in business are fair game.
"They are a target and they need to be taken to task over every single issue, instead of actually promoting people in business as people who are actually making a significant contribution to Australia."
As new president, Mr Seabrook said the PGA would look beyond agricultural-specific resolutions.
"There are many things that we have been doing in this country over a long period of time that we as a nation have been able to get away with and we can't anymore," he said.
"This is clearly evidenced by the obvious failure of manufacturing across the board in Australia.
"And if we as primary producers think we are separate from that then we are kidding ourselves.
"The same thing that impacts on a small business in the city impacts on us."
Mr Seabrook said the gradual diminishing of profitability was a major challenge for agriculture in WA.
"It has put primary producers in a position where they are easily tipped over by one or two bad seasons," he said.
"Until recently, there was enough fat in the system for people to deal with the situations that drought and other issues bring forth.
"But the industry has not been travelling well for so long that there is just no fat left in the system.
"You are seeing a drought that is pushing people over the edge and it simply comes down to profitability.
"For 30 years we have been talking about bad policy that has impacted on the capacity of agriculture to compete and be profitable, and it has just culminated now."
But according to Mr Seabrook it is not too late to turn things around.
"The thing about agriculture is it's naturally resilient and the capacity of the people involved continues to amaze me," he said.
"We've just come out of a bad year in 2012 and we have just grown 16 million tonnes of grain this year.
"That is just a spectacular performance given the difficulties a lot of people are having."
Speaking on the opportunities for the WA agricultural sector into the future, Mr Seabrook said removing unnecessary regulation and costs from the system, and increased efficiency were key.
But it was market prospects in Asia that were a major opportunity.
"We have been talking about Asia for 25 years," he said.
"I think it is probably going to eventuate and the most exciting place that we can get ourselves into is China."
Mr Seabrook said the PGA grains industry reform would remain a key priority during his term.
"We've knocked over some fairly big things, the AWB, the Grain Pool with its statutory powers of acquisition in barley and lupins, most of the big ones are out of the way, but we will continue to strive for greater efficiencies," he said.
"This has been brought out by the Bunge export terminal in Bunbury, we have encouraged that and it will be a great way of benchmarking how we can get product out of the country.
"So we encourage that."
Commenting on ongoing speculation about PGA membership numbers, Mr Seabrook said the organisation's membership base was holding strong, and it was travelling extremely well financially.
"But at the same time we offer an enormous benefit right across the board, to producers from one end of the State to the other," he said.
"Disappointingly only some of those are financially contributing.
"And I think that it would be to the benefit of the industry if more people were prepared to step up and make a contribution to the lobby groups that work on their behalf.
"I don't have any issues whether it is WAFarmers or the PGA but I think that we could be far more effective if we had more gun powder in the locker, and that gun powder is actually membership.
"We need more producers to step up because only about one third of producers in the State are a member of either organisation.
"I think farmers are selling themselves short."
Addressing ongoing industry speculation about the future of both of WA's leading lobby groups, Mr Seabrook said discussions about forming one lobby group had continued for 25 years and to get involved in such dialogue would be a distraction from the serious business currently at hand.
"In the foreseeable future the industry is best served with the organisations the way they are," he said.
"If at some time in the future, the majority of the members of this association feel there might be some value in it then we will consider it."
