latest insights.

Robbie Sefton believes more people need to come out and declare that a typical Australian farmer is a young, enterprising woman defined by their unyielding passion. Image credit - The Land When we think about what makes Australian farmers tick, typical characteristics spring to mind such as; hard-working, resilient, stoic, patient and enduring. We think about our farmers as being humble, ...
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Royal Shows are integral to the fabric of regional communities and do so much, not only for agriculture, but for the community in general. Image credit - The Land There’s nothing quite like that magical feeling you get after handing over your ticket and walking through the gates, at the annual Agricultural Royal Show. After 12-months of anticipation, those first few steps seem surreal ...
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From little things big things grow. And there’s no better living example of this saying than the incredible results achieved by the Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia (BIRRR) group – founded by two young women from the bush who wanted to fix a problem. A big problem. What started as determined team of volunteers six years ago has now evolved into a professional service ...
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The Centre for the Study of Agribusiness (CSA) at Marcus Oldham College is proud to present, Marcus Oldham AgTalk. Hosted by the director of the CSA, David Cornish. Why do farmers need to care about social license? With Robbie Sefton ...
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As someone who grew up on an irrigation farm in southern New South Wales and now runs a dryland farm in northern New South Wales, I have always been proud to live and work in rural and regional Australia, and to call the Basin home. I recently had the honour of Chairing the Independent Panel assessing the social and economic impacts of water reform on Basin communities. The Panel undertook ...
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Australian agriculture has a goal: to generate $100 billion in farm gate output by 2030. Getting there is going to take all the resourcefulness we've got, especially if the effects are to carry well beyond 2030. Laid out in 2017 by the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF), with the support of its members, the ambitious 2030 Roadmap requires that we up the ante of every aspect of agriculture – not ...
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We've heard a lot about rural industries’ "social licence" over the past few years. What is it, actually? In a word, it is trust. It is the community trusting that farmers, fishers and foresters share broader social values on matters like environmental stewardship, animal welfare and water resources. When trusted, primary producers and their supply chains are largely left alone to pursue ...
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Most of us of a certain age will have known or heard of someone born when wool and grain was carried from farm to railhead, or to port, on bullock drays. We’ve probably all seen vintage photos in country pubs proudly displaying magnificent teams of bullocks heaving burgeoning wool bales on a well-worn dray through boggy black soils on a nearby dirt road. In the century-plus since, we’ve been ...
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America’s founders thought that the freedom of the press was so important that they enshrined it in the republic’s constitution. In Australia, we also make much ado about press freedom as an essential underpinning of democracy – but what happens when there is no press? That’s what we’re seeing in rural and regional Australia, as the lights of small newspapers blink out one by one. The ...
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If nothing else, COVID-19 has reinforced the immense value of digital capability. Many businesses – including mine – were able to switch almost seamlessly from physical offices to online meetings and communication. My business has been operating as a ‘remote’ business model for 25 years, but as urban Australian’s catch up, I think that we as a nation have had time to adjust to working from ...
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If we take anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it might be that nothing worthwhile happens without collaboration and its inseparable twin, compromise. There has been a growing tendency to sideline these sensible approaches to problem-solving in Australia's public debates, and to instead win battles through political strength and favour. Human history repeatedly shows where this tactic takes ...
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It’s been 6 weeks since COVID-19 started to change the business landscape. Most organisations successfully communicated the impact of those changes to their customers, and the lucky ones are getting on with the “new” business-as-usual. But the dialogue shouldn’t stop there. As humans we communicate to inform, educate, reassure and maintain relationships. In business we do all of the same ...
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Image credit - https://www.business2community.com/ In 2004, the phrase "Life comes at you fast" was a clever tagline for US insurance company Nationwide. In 2020, it has become a meme for our times. Few of us are comfortable with uncertainty, but our certainties are built on human expectations that things will track a certain way. The real world, as the past month has shown, deals in ...
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It is now certain that the global economy will be completely changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The nature of those changes are wholly uncertain, except that there is likely to be extensive short-term damage to agricultural markets. Fortunately, food and fibre production are the most essential of essential services, and so agriculture will endure over the long term. But in what form? Hopefully, ...
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Importance of a compelling story makes journalism and PR closer than we think The worlds of journalism and public relations are either close relations or worlds apart – depends on who you ask. Coming from one industry to another, I can say both statements are probably true, depending on whether you focus on the similarities, or the many differences. From journalist to public relations ...
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Image credit - AAP Image/Lukas Coch via REUTERS Rural and regional Australians are confronting significant social and economic challenges amid the ravages of a dramatically severe bushfire season, compounded by one of the worst-ever droughts. Understandably, these disasters have attracted relentless media attention, with constant up-close commentary of every iteration and angle. This ...
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Robbie Sefton says the success of prominent figures from the bush prove you can become anything you want, by working hard and backing your talents. JAN Logan’s success story is an inspiration to all Australians; not just those from the regions. Just like other accomplished entrepreneurs, an abundance of self-motivation, passion and creativity underscored Jan’s risk-taking journey, ...
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Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott says we must unleash the potential of our people and places across the whole of the country. Image credit - The Land There is a lot of well-documented frustration in regional Australia, where some regions feel they have been bypassed in the nation’s prosperity push. The statistics don’t look all that encouraging, either: of the ...
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ONE thing I’ve learned over the years, in working with and meeting regional Australians from all corners of our great country on different projects and initiatives, is this. If you want a miracle, be the miracle. Unfortunately, these days – especially in a world dominated by the internet and social media, where keyboard warriors vent their fickle, fleeting thoughts 1000-Tweets a minute – it ...
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THIS has been another challenging year for the Australian agricultural sector with our resilience tested on multiple levels. But as always, the tough times have also seen many good people doing good things to exhibit the fierce fighting spirit and practical problem-solving prowess that we all know exists in regional Australia. Undoubtedly, drought is the biggest issue that’s confronted ...
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