Stephen Walsh on IFA Protest Conclusion

0:00I suppose the conclusion has been arrived that I suppose number one, you know, the IFA farmers have been outside that or be offices for over a month and they were there for 24 hours of the ages around the clock. It was absolutely for others individuals, quite grueling to be able to sustain that. But this is a subject we would be very concerned about. Concerned about, again, obviously, the chairman of Borbilla bringing in Brazilian beef into this country, when we export 90% of our beef. And I suppose concerned about, well, what does it mean and why is it happening? And I suppose the question really is, you know, bringing in Brazilian beef, and actually we're here today on the launch of a clear biodiversity action plan above in current beautiful day. But if we talk about biodiversity and and then that space about bringing in beef from a country which really has none of that in terms of ranching and, you know, we talk

1:03about the the rain forest and all those issues. And then we talk about beef coming in here, again, and destroying really a system that we have here in terms the type of family we have here in terms of the standards we have here. And then coming in with no standards. And we said, why and, you know, would an individual who is chairman of Borbilla, which sets those standards, would bring in that product here. I mean, it's it's it's it's unbelievable. And I think it's first the same season that the context for this as well is the Marcosertre deal. Your organization is obviously opposed to the deal. And you would see this as perhaps normalizing the import of Brazilian beef or South American beef, which you don't want down the line. No, absolutely not because, you know, in terms of how can we expect to even compete with that product. And if we don't compete, obviously we lose our farmers here. We lose the product that's produced here. And then the general society have no no choice but to eat the Brazilian

2:08product because there's nothing else available to them. And, you know, from so many levels, it is so unbelievable and so ridiculous. And we're questioning why does our government even back that space and even bring us back to that, you know, we had another program on RT last night about, you know, Larry Goodman. And we have the, you know, the tale of the two Larry's, we have another documentary in a couple of more years, you know, down the road about Larry Borbilla. And then, you know, the concept of bringing in that Brazilian product in here and what it will do to decimate our, you know, our, our type of farming and our economy are farming in order. The IFA has said that it put a proposal to the board 10 days ago that identified seven strands that should be examined. And the chair would step aside while these are being considered. That's what the IFA was looking for. And they say that this was the basis for the outcome that there will be a full governance review. Stephen, would you be able to tell us what those

3:10seven strands are or even give us an idea of the basis for this review? Well, again, the basis for this review is again about number one. Obviously, I mean, the position of Larry Borbilla's chairperson and how he can dictate in terms of his actions in terms of that space, you know, in terms of he was able to ignore. We have two farmer representatives on that board and he would ignore them. So obviously, that's one area. Second area in terms of, you know, I suppose why the product is coming in here. And terribly, you know, in terms of I suppose how it's going to decimate our farming here. But the I suppose that there are so many questions being asked here. The why is the ifs. And so, there'll be a lot of work to be done in between of, well, why is all of this happening? There has been some criticism of the manner in which the IFA has gone about its protest. Indeed,

4:14we saw 1,500 people attend a protest outside Minister Martin Hayden, the Agriculture Minister's constituency office at the weekend, during which damage was done to signage at the office, Minister Hayden described the protest and again, the way in which it was gone about as reckless. And the IFA has said that those signs would be replaced. Do you stand over the way in which the protest has been carried out throughout the last month? Absolutely. And I mean, Minister Hayden has completely and virtually ignored the situation. It has been very disappointed from a minister point of view how he couldn't have got involved and tried and get in the surface, which much quicker and disappointing in his whole approach and handling of this this scenario. And even surprising that he would allow it to get to the stage that I got to. And even his lack of understanding of the consequences to farming in terms of allowing Brazilian beef in here.

5:16And allowing individuals to bring it in here to allow it to go back out to our other European customers, which potentially can undermine our product. So that there's so many questions that we need answers to. And I suppose it's actually mind-boggling for others farmers to think that the minister who is supposed to be have our backs and would get so excited over a petty few posters. And you know, okay, obviously, it shouldn't be damaged, but I suppose you have that level of anger at that level of frustration. And with 1500 people, there's always one individual that can let them decide the best. And so I suppose look, how do you get a message across? How do you get to the point where he actually would sit down or listen to you? And that didn't happen. And that was the disappointing aspect to this. So the question, do I support absolutely

6:16100% the demonstration, the farmers that were involved. Absolutely, can I say, I see a damage been done. Again, I don't know exactly what posters or things were damaged. Yes, they would be replaced. That's the right thing. Shouldn't have happened. But the frustration is there and how do you have? How do you have event that frustration? And I think a lot of that background to the minister will allow you to get the level he did without he trying to start sooner. And just a lot of the blame falls back to him. Okay, just to conclude, Stephen, so the review will be commissioned by the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine. And it's to be completed by the 30th of April of this year, given your own views and the views of the organization on the agriculture minister, American Hayden, how confident are you that that review will be carried out in a manner that's

7:19satisfactory to farmers and taking their concerns on board? Well, I suppose, you know, to knock it before it started, we would not be a wise thing to be doing. We would be concerned, I suppose, with the lack of dialogue that has happened to bring us to the point of now that it took us a month before we could even get to a stage where we could find a level of being listened to. But I suppose we don't know the makeup of that board. We don't know what questions will be asked. But there are serious questions to be asked. There are serious questions in terms of how the process and how big business can dictate and to the farming sector and how they can undermine that farming sector in terms of the good work that's been done in terms of traceability, in terms of all of that space. So there's a lot of questions to be answered and asked.

8:20So will it be done under the term? It's difficult to say it great if it did. And if it did deal with all the issues, but I'm not 100% confident.