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7 October 2003
It has been worrying me for some time that issues in the wool industry are not fully understood and this concern became more evident to me when a major rural weekly inadvertently branded an article about recent changes to the A.W.I. constitution with the Woolpoll logo.
This is just a small example of some of the confusing issues confronting
growers as they ponder the current Wollpoll. I thought it would be a good
time to recap on some of the major areas of misunderstanding
*promotional activities cannot be undertaken by A.W.I.
*A.F.F.A. funding is determined by how much is spent by the Research Development
Corporations, not collected by them
*Woolpoll 2003 is supposedly an independent body overseeing the vote for
how much wool tax is collected from July 2004 to July 2007, and has nothing
to do with the election or otherwise of directors
These issues must be clearly understood by growers when they choose their
levy rate to shape the future direction of Research and Development funding
priorities in the upcoming Woolpoll.
That confusion is rife in many industry bodies as demonstrated by some calling for an increase to 3% tax to incorporate promotion, and some calling to maintain the levy rate at 2% so that A.W.I. “won’t die”.
It is interesting to note that many of the same people and organizations
calling for a 2% levy vote now were advocating a 4% levy in Woolpoll 2000.
Then, as now, they used the same argument that if we spend huge sums of
money reinventing wheels we are somehow going to discover the wool industry’s
silver bullet. A.W.I will not wind down and cease to exist if we don’t
give them more money, they will just become more focused on how they utilize
their resources
The facts are that A.W.I. can’t undertake promotion. The facts are
that A.W.I. will be able to rely on over one hundred million dollars in
reserves, eleven million dollars in Government contributions and fourteen
million dollars plus expected from Grower’s tax to June 30, 2004,
even with a zero levy.
A.W.I. does not need a big call from growers to carry on trading.
With Senator Ferris and others cruelling our industry in the Senate, it is no wonder confusion and apathy are rife amongst growers but when we spend over one million dollars to set Woolpoll out as a separate issue and publications like the Stock and Land can’t separate the issues because of confusion then that’s another million plus dollars down the drain.
I urge everyone to consider how much of his or her income is going to A.W.I. and consider a cost benefit for that money against their business and to vote accordingly.
Yours sincerely
Will Crozier,
Chairman, Australian Wool Growers Association.
Casterton Victoria
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