Australian Dairy Plan

The Australian Dairy Plan is a set of priorities for the dairy industry for the next five years and beyond to create a more profitable, confident and united Australian dairy industry.

The Dairy Plan process was first announced in November 2018 and since then there has been consultation with stakeholders from across all dairy regions and the dairy industry during May to July 2019. Participation from the stakeholders throough consultation were able to provide themes that the Dairy Plan needs to address. These can be found here, along with the Terms of Reference.

The development of the Australian Dairy Plan is being led by Dairy Australia, Australian Dairy Farmers, Australian Dairy Products Federation and Gardiner Dairy Foundation, with John Brumby serving as Independent Chair.

After the consultation in dairy regions of Australia, a two-day workshop to finalise and agreed on the key positive changes. They are:

• Transformational change to reform industry structures and strengthen advocacy to be more effective, united and efficient.
• New measures to increase transparency and help manage market risk including the establishment of a functioning milk price market and new risk measures backed by government legislation.
• A significant increase in marketing and promotion to build community trust and recognition of dairy products, the dairy industry and dairy farmers.
• Increased effort and new initiatives to attract and support more new people to the industry, particularly the next generation of farmers.
• A heightened focus to address rising costs, risks and volatility on farm, including building farmer capability, adopting new innovations, and accessing new risk management tools.
• A concerted effort to change the culture of the industry to position dairy as an agri-business leader with a clear and positive focus on excellence.
• Build on world-leading practice through the Sustainability Framework to stay at the forefront with innovative new practices that meet and exceed consumer expectations.
• Better understand how climate change will affect our industry across Australia (particularly when it comes to water) and more investment in the technological solutions that will help us adapt to a changing climate.
• Practical initiatives to work with the Federal Government and maximise support available from the $100bn agriculture target and associated $4.9bn drought fund.
• A clear and ambitious vision for the future of the Australian dairy industry such as ‘A united, profitable and growing dairy industry built on high standards of environmental sustainability and animal welfare, producing high quality and nutritious dairy products to the Australian and international markets.’

A draft Australian Dairy Plan was published on 6 December 2019, with the consultation closing on the 7^thFebruary 2020.

The draft Australian Dairy Plan document can be found here, the Executive Summary can be found on pages 1-5 on the draft Australian Dairy Plan.

If you have any comments that you would like to make please email policy@tfga.com.au or call 03 6332 1800 and ask for Policy Officer John Dunbar.