Update: Joint Transition Team progresses work

The Joint Transition Team (JTT) met for their second meeting in Melbourne last Wednesday.

The JTT was formed by and reports to the Australian Dairy Plan Committee, which includes the chairs of Australian Dairy Farmers, Dairy Australia, Australian Dairy Products Federation, and Gardiner Dairy Foundation. It will recommend options for reform of industry structures, which was one of the key issues raised during Dairy Plan consultation meetings.

The JTT Chair Shirley Harlock said that the team held a productive meeting:

• Discussing the significance of the task it has been given by the Australian Dairy Plan Committee and how it would approach developing options and a recommendation on what would be a world class model for the industry.
• Team members will be working collaboratively to meet the demanding timeframe to produce a draft report by late November. The approach it is taking includes:
  
  
  • Convening fortnightly meetings
  • Working between meetings in sub-teams on specific topics. Two sub-teams were formed, with one to commence work on identifying and developing structural options, and the second to develop the approach for communicating openly about the process and progress.
• The team will tap into the wealth of existing information that was collated on industry stakeholder views about the need for structural reforms. In particular, it will reference the extensive industry consultations conducted as part of the Australian Dairy Plan.

The JTT welcomes any additional documents, reports or submissions relating to industry structures that industry stakeholders may have developed since the national workshop on 30/31 July 2019. These should be limited to two pages and submitted by Wednesday 16 October to the attention of the JTT Secretariat Fred Jones at: jjt@dairyplan.com.au.

Thank you to those who have contacted JTT members already, your feedback to the process is appreciated and is being considered by the JTT in the development of options for the future structure of the industry.

I will be sharing regular updates after meetings of the JTT via this web page and look forward to hearing about progress and the options developed.

John Brumby
Independent Chair