THE deadline for nominations for positions on the cattle transaction Levy Review Committee has been extended to Friday January 23.
The extension has been implemented in consideration of the devasting recent flooding and bushfire events in regional Australia. It is essential that all producers have the opportunity to nominate given their involvement will be critical to the review process.
The goal of the review is to ensure the levy has the ongoing ability to support critical industry research, development, marketing and biosecurity initiatives. As such, it is an important opportunity for individuals with suitable knowledge and expertise to help drive this long-overdue review.
Five suitably qualified producers are being sought (two southern region, two northern region and one western region), along with two independent committee members, to join two Cattle Australia Directors on the Levy Review Committee (Committee) to engage with industry and collect views on the levy system.
The producer committee members will have a strong awareness of the issues most important to fellow producers in their production area, knowledge of the objectives and operations of Cattle Australia and MLA, and a clear understanding of the application and apportionment of the Levy.
There will also be the skills-based appointment of an independent specialist in research and development corporations and an independent specialist in government and government systems to ensure we’re capturing committee members with robust and proven skills across levy and government processes.
Over the course of the next 10 months, the Committee will provide oversight and guide the review of the levy, with recommendations to be presented to levy payers for a vote at the MLA AGM in November 2026.
- To apply: email your CV and cover letter to ctl.secretariat@
cattleaustralia.com.au - Applications close: 23 January 2026
- More information: https://cattleaustralia.com.
au/review-of-the-cattle- transaction-levy/.
Source: Cattle Australia
If a grass-fed cattle producer is considering applying to join this committee, they are warned. CA (rebadged from Cattle Council of Australia) have history regarding their adopting their committee recommendations, and it is not good.
On 29th September 2021, our organisation joined representatives from 17 other organisations active in the beef industry to meet over 2 days to consider “Restructuring national representation for the grassfed cattle industry”. We were termed the Industry Leaders Forum, and the meeting was called by the then President of CCA and his CEO. An extensive agenda was provided. Considerable work by CCA preceded the meeting.
After 13 months of meetings and discussion, on 1st November 2022 a Terms of Reference was settled by the Grass-fed Cattle Industry Restructure Steering Committee to establish a new organisation to be the peak council for the grass-fed cattle industry. Plan 4B was adopted and it provided for all levy payers to be members of the new company, and they all had one vote no matter the number of cattle they owned. This was agreed by industry.
Over the next 10 months, CCA forced the resignation of the President and CEO who had managed the process and appointed Lloyd Hick as its new President. They adopted a constitution in CA totally different to those terms agreed by industry, and they effectively allowed CCA to control the restructure. All our effort went for nothing. Of course, the politicians washed their hands of it including the current National Party Leader despite earlier support.
Our guess is that CA will seek to increase the levy and have some paid to themselves to fund their activities. If their committee disagree, they will again do what they want – hang what the committee members say. We suggest you do not waste your time being a member of the committee, or even being a member of CA. They have done nothing to reduce the costs of running a grass-fed cattle business and live in the rarified atmosphere of the nation’s capital attending committee meetings.
Australian Cattle Industry Council