Mental health services, the push to grow the nation’s
agriculture workforce and infrastructure spending are among the wins for rural
and regional Australia from Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s third budget. Seftons’ Managing Director Robbie Sefton said delivering
a budget during the current pandemic crisis was always going to be a
challenging task, but she was happy to see the focus remain ...
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latest insights.
Biodiversity
There’s an old joke
that goes something like this and the punch line is one that should resonate
with all farmers and anyone interested in a changing climate. What happens when
you cross an Irishman with a Scotsman? You get someone who likes to drink, but
doesn’t want to pay for it. That same odd-couple
combo also applies to Australian consumers when it comes to food production;
especially ...
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Artificial Intelligence Technologies
WHEN it comes to implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies
in Australia, we can’t afford to make any dumb moves; especially resorting to complacency
or navel gazing. But if we’re smart and savvy and think strategically, to act on a bold
vision, it’ll ensure we optimise future benefits of the AI revolution;
especially making Australian farmers and agribusiness more efficient ...
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Megatrends
LET’S face it –
there’s very little to get truly excited about in the news media these days. If it’s not a story
about the Coronavirus pandemic, or the latest political or Royal scandal, or an
sporting player’s off-field antics, then it’s likely to be about droughts,
floods, bush-fires or some other looming natural catastrophe. Amid this seemingly
constant environment of conflict and ...
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Facebook and real news
More than anything,
the current clash between Facebook and the Australian Government represents an
ideal opportunity for agriculturalists and rural communities to stop, think and
rediscover how we all individually interact with social media, both personally and professionally. Firstly, being blocked
from sharing news articles with your friends and contacts via Facebook isn’t
the end of the ...
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Australian of the Year Award
I’d like to pause for a moment to reflect on the recent Australian of
the Year Awards; especially the strong values, deep sense of personal purpose
and achievements shared by each of the winners, which we as Australians can all
be proud of. Firstly, as the Deputy Chair of the National Australia Day Council Board,
and as a Board member since 2010, I’ve been fortunate to observe the ...
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Australians of the Year announced
As
Deputy Chair of the National Australia Day Council, Robbie Sefton was proud to
be part of the national selection panel for the four outstanding Australian’s
of the Year. Robbie, with the Chair and board was with the Prime Minister, The
Hon Scott Morrison MP, as he announced the Australian of the Year Award
recipients, all of whom are women, at a ceremony in Canberra. ...
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Number one goal to set up the future
NSW Minister of Agriculture, Adam Marshall with the states first Agriculture Commissioner Daryl Quinlivan at a Coffs Harbour banana farm. Photo: NSW DPI. Image credit - The Land I’m looking forward to seeing how newly appointed NSW Agricultural
Commissioner Daryl Quinlivan can deliver positive outcomes through this
first-time role. Daryl took up the challenge in August and recently outlined ...
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Farming – learning from 42 years of journalist’s experience
Veteran Western Australian journalist Ken Wilson’s recent
retirement, after 54 years in the saddle, including 42 as an agricultural
reporter, has prompted me to open-up an important discussion about the
accumulation of knowledge in our industry. Not just how this knowledge is harvested, but also how it’s shared
and how it can be applied. But before going further into these observations, ...
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Entrepreneurialism in the Bush
Recently I read an inspiring article by demographer, author and newspaper
columnist Bernard Salt and felt compelled to share my thoughts and feelings
about it. I’ve read a few of Bernard’s books and always find his writing style to
be open, energising, encouraging and empathetic. When it comes to the nation’s mood, his finger is firmly on the pulse
and his words also demonstrate great ...
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A conversation that needs to be shared
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 play an important role
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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Better connectivity because of community volunteers
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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AgTalk Podcast
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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There’s more to be done
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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New chapter in Murray Darling Basin Plan centres on communities
Minister for Resources, Water and
Northern Australia, Keith Pitt quotes from the launch of the Murray Darling
Basin Social Economic Assessment Report that… “Communities have told us in
no uncertain terms that they are sick of being talked at and not listened to.
That feedback came through loud and clear in the Independent Assessment of
Social and Economic Conditions in the Basin which I released ...
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Ambition
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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Trust: easy to lose, hard to get back.
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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Infrastructure
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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What do we lose as our papers vanish?
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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