New generation steps up

There is a changing of the guard at the TFGA, not only with Peter Skillern’s appointment as the new chief executive officer, but also changes on some of our councils and committees. New brooms?

I’ll get to Peter in a minute, but among the other changes we have are Sassafras potato grower Nathan Richardson, son of long-time vegetable council member Rex Richardson, who takes over the chair of the council from Andrew Craigie; Deloraine carrot grower David Cresswell joins the council and there are two new members, Deloraine farmer Brady Davis and Hagley farmer Nicholas Eyles, both aged under 30. That is fantastic to see.

The new chair of the cereal and seeds committee is Hagley farmer Greg Gibson, son of long-time council member Ross Gibson. Greg takes over from Peter Clutterbuck.

Andrew Lester remains head honcho on the dairy council and north-east dairy farmer Andrew Aldridge joins as a new member.

Brian Stewart remains chair of the meat council and is joined by newcomers Longford farmer Piers Dumaresq, who was an accountant in Melbourne and has returned home to farm with father Martin Dumaresq, and Koonya goat farmer Stewart Yeoland.

But the headline act is Peter Skillern, whom the board of the TFGA was pleased to appoint as the replacement for Jan Davis. Peter, the TFGA’s policy and advocacy manager for the past two years, beat an impressive field of applicants for the job, which is a double bonus for the TFGA, given his intimate knowledge of the local industry, the players, the movers and shakers.

Peter has a really interesting background. Not many would have CEO of Environment Tasmania and director of the Liberal Party on their c.v. He does. It demonstrates what drives him. It isn’t blinkered politics; it is an open mind and a primary focus on corporate governance, fiscal responsibility, policy development and advocacy.

Peter has said that he will dedicate the initial period in office to an appraisal of the TFGA’s internal operations with a view to restructuring where necessary.

“There are challenges coming down the road at us, but each one of those challenges hides an opportunity,” he says.

“The key here is ensuring that you have the ability to recognise the opportunity, and the flexibility and the adaptability to actually exploit the opportunity to your benefit.

“As a farmer, I share their (farmers’) emotions and their experiences on the land, so I have a more intimate understanding of how they feel, having experienced it myself. So in some respects I’m a colleague in arms.”

In interviews he gave after his appointment was announced, journalists would have got a firm impression of the person they will be dealing with. Expect Peter to be less out there than Jan was. At the same time, you can expect to see more instances of farmers on our board and commodity councils talking to farmers (though Peter himself produces prime lambs and cherries).

He takes the reins at a time of great optimism in the industry. Rabobank has our confidence levels at their highest point in 14 years; prices are generally good; we are hearing encouraging noises from the state government on rural policy; China is opening up for our producers; and we worked out the other day that, with the irrigation roll-out, we are storing and distributing about 160 gigalitres of water across almost 250,000 ha of arable land.

That’s a pretty good start for any incoming CEO.

The TFGA staff in Launceston gave Peter a warm reception when I broke the news to them this week. They are skilled and dedicated people who have helped deliver our reputation for advocacy that is second to none.
TFGA president Wayne Johnston