THE large amount of red tape impacting on agriculture was a common theme at last week's Pastoralists and Graziers Association (PGA) Convention.
And the hurdles put in front of people trying to show some initiative was well reflected in Broome pastoralist Jack Burton's speech.
Mr Burton has started his own beef and lamb labels and recently bought the Gingin abattoir and is in the process of building an abattoir at Broome.
He said with the live export industry on a knife's edge and the well documented food security issues, he wanted to take control of his product and instead of marketing cattle or sheep to a handful of customers as he was with live export, he wanted to put meat in a box and market it to millions of customers.
But, he said, that dream almost didn't become reality due to the red tape issue.
"If it wasn't for the fact that I have absolute 100 per cent stanima, there is no way we would have ever got to where we are because of the red tape," he said.
"The last 10 years of my life has been spent primarily dealing with red tape and kicking and screaming to get things done.
"It would be easier to get permission to clear the Amazon rain forest en masse than it would to do what we have been trying to do in terms of getting approvals.
"I don't blame any individuals but I think bureacureay is so self centred on their particular area - you say water and that is all they focus on, you say environment they just focus on environment.
"But the problem is I have 10 or 12 agencies that I have to deal with and they all want your time and want you to tick all the boxes but they are only looking at it from one persepctive.
"We are sitting there with 11 or 12 of these departments slapping us in the face every day and demanding this and demanding that and threatening that we are going to be fined to the eyeball and it is hard to deal with.
"And these people need to realise, farmers are not just whingeing about this, it is a real issue.
"And there are two ways to beat it. You just keep doing it with your own stamina or as Andrew Forrest said, pay a group of people to fight them on the same thing.
"But unfortunately, if you haven't got the resources or the stamina it isn't going to happen."
Mr Burton said he is looking at building a boning room in Singapore and his dealings with that country highlighted the high degree of regulation in Australia even more.
"Within 48 hours of putting a proposal in to build it, the Singapore Government had given us a 10 per cent flat tax rate for the first five years operation and had located a site for us," he said.
"They wanted us up there almost immediately to bed it down and for us to tell them what we wanted because they wanted that boning room adjacent to the airport in Singapore.
"And, on top of that, a highly skilled boner in Singapore is paid US$300 a month and airfreight into Singapore is 45 cents a kilogram.
"In Australia a good boner is paid $300 a day.
"This is where Australia in real trouble.
"I would love to build this in Australia and keep jobs here but at those rates I can't afford not to do it.
"We may not be able to export our farms but we can export our jobs.
"So what we have is a boning room with 40 people that could be boning Kimberley beef in the Kimberley, is going to be located in Singapore with not one Australian working there - what a terrible outcome. "And it is red tape that is doing it."
