Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers’ Post

Transcript

High growers have Queensland. My name is Rachel Chambers and I'm the CEO of Queensland Fruit and Vegetable Growers. In case you missed what happened in April and there was a lot, here, it is Disaster season hit hard and although we did have a win early in the season with the state government promising to include replanting as part of our their disaster support for growers in later in the season, there were some complications with growers being in and out of the funding support. Boundaries we did follow up with growers and we had some good wins with those growers. So if you are a growing Queensland who has been disaster impacted but hasn't received appropriate support, reach out and we'll see what we can do to help you. I have met often with state ministers and also staff. It was at one of these meetings that I discovered that Cabinet was considering a plan to remove the discounts for irrigation water. This resulted in quite a curt. Letter to all of members of cabinet to stop that because we do not need any increases in input expenses to our growers. Next month, it being May, the DPI is going out and they're consulting on the DPI Blueprint which is a 25 year plan for agriculture in Queensland. I strongly suggest that if you can get to one of these events, do so. If not, I strongly suggest jumping online and giving your feedback. I also this month met with Charles Burke. For those of you who don't know who Charles Burke is, he is the Food Farmers Commissioner for Queensland. We spent the time unpacking the HLC Supermarket inquiry. For anyone who hasn't read it, it's pretty good read that I suggest that you read recommendations tend to 20 in earnest. So Charles and I spoke about that. We also spoke about and he wants me to do a shout out to everyone to make you aware that he has a totally secure website and portal now so you can Google Food Farmers Commissioner QLD and then you can have a direct and confidential discussion and information with Charles himself. Berries melons. And leafy green growers, you may not be aware, but we have just spent a year of frustration in trying to get our Queensland to implement the national food safety standards. Unfortunately we reached a stalemate, so we're back to the drawing board. So if anyone is following along with the lemons, melons and leafy greens community, we're back to the drawing board with that. But we are keeping our line that we will not agree to any increases of burden and federally there will be an election. As I record this, the election is very close, so we'll wait for the dust to settle On the on the flip side, however, anyone who is employing staff on a Level 1 award, port award currently, you really need to understand the changes that took effect on the 1st of April where you can only do that Level 1 for three months. And also you have to take previous experience into consideration. So please make yourself aware of that of those issues. Feedback from members this month. There's been a couple of lovely emails. Thank you for thanking us for supporting you. It is our absolute pleasure. But we do love hearing that it's actually been useful and relevant. And also a couple of really well thought out emails on the burden of compliance. And it's to that point that we are at QFG as part of the Fair Farms program or the Fair Funds program as part of QFG is we're looking at how we ourselves. Be part of the solution. So we are looking at how to reduce duplication, how to reduce burden, how to make things more simple. So keep an eye out for that in the near future. I think that is it. Until next month, bye for now.