So this is Christmas

As I put together this little video for all my readers and my special friends I have been thinking of the many different Christmases I have had over the last fifteen years and I must admit its hard to go past Christmas with good friends on the ski slopes in Sliver Star

Silver Star Mountain on New Years Eve

or the look on the kids faces when we spent Christmas at the Banff Springs Hotel

and Chateau Lake Louise

and that moonlight sleigh ride

then there was Disneyland

In the words of Dickens

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveller back to his own fireside and quiet home!

This year it will be with special friends and family at their house and mine enjoying the

simple pleasures of life

Does it get much better than this

I have seen Christmas trees that reach for the sky in Paris and San Francisco but I kinda like my little tree this year

Its quite amazing what you can do with a recycled pipe and some twisted willow

and some simple decorations

in red and silver

Christmas is not always full of joy and Douglas Copeland once said

Christmas makes everything twice as sad.

Most of all lets remember one of life’s lesson is always moving on. It’s okay to look back and think of fond memories but keep moving forward

Life wasn’t meant to be travelled backwards and you will never find your future in the rear view mirror.

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas

Courage does not always roar

The end of 2013 is nigh and its time for reflection. This year I put my hand up to officially enter the world of agri-politics and as 2014 fast approaches I am seriously asking myself is this the best use of my time, energy and expertise? Very importantly is it the right thing for my emotional well-being?. As I listen and learn and process I am constantly being reminded of the Edmund Burke quote

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men and women do nothing.

I am also constantly buoyed by the great men and women I meet and last Monday saw me in Brisbane at the invitation of Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) at their Climate Adaptation Producer Workshop. I was quite excited to be attending this workshop because MLA has a collaborative mindset and producers from a number of industries were attending and I love these cross industry think tanks.

I also saw it as a great opportunity to grow my Bring a Friend campaign and take the dynamo that is Target 100’s Beef Young Farming Champion Bronwyn Roberts with me

The group was tasked with answering the following questions (considering all elements of the enterprise – animals, plants, people and the overall system)

1. What are the key research needs for climate for our farming systems?

2. What are the human skills and capacity needs for climate for our farming systems?

3. What do we already know about climate, and is that information (& decision support tools) sufficiently available to livestock producers?

4. What would an ideal farming system look like for your business in 2030? What resources or tools would you require to be more profitable in the future?

Now anybody who has spent even the smallest amount of time with me will know that to me agriculture in this country won’t have a viable future until we start genuinely investing in our people. See previous post here

To me it is imperative that we identify, engage, nurture and support our young people in an environment that allows each individual to build and enhance existing knowledge and skills and pivotally provides ongoing training and development to help them become more effective, and take on bigger and more significant challenges. This also requires us to establish conditions that will allow individuals to engage in the process of learning and adapting to change.

So it goes without saying that I would firmly ensconce myself at the table that was focusing on question 2.

It would not be a discussion without leadership or rather lack of rearing its ugly head and this brings me to the reason why I am finding myself emotionally drained at the end of 2013

In my role as a national dairy industry councillor I attended a number of dairy industry events last month. The hot topic behind the scenes was how was Dairy Australia taking the Horizon 2020 project forward?. No matter how you look at it this is a brilliant document – Horizon 2020

This project explored possible future scenarios for the Australian dairy industry in 2020 and described a desirable outcome.

In the words of the working group it was about ‘looking long and thinking differently’ and creating

the necessary farm business “fitness”
a positive and proactive culture;
(dairy) industry leadership to succeed in achieving a desired future in 2020.

The working group said

These imperatives will require industry to do a number of fundamentally new things and to address existing agendas differently compared to today.

Excitingly Horizon 2020 was to be the start of a process to

stimulate the Australian dairy industry to focus on the future – the opportunities that this future presents and what it will demand of our industry.

There were a number of young farmers on this working group who got the opportunity of a lifetime to travel the world and meet the first movers and the innovators and the champions in dairy right across the supply chain from the US to Europe

Fundamentally for these young farmers leadership growth they were promised by Dairy Australia that

“this process should create an ongoing process of insights and thought leadership to guide industry decision-making in future,

and they would be part of the team

‘to monitor progress on follow-up to this initiative”.

Now we all know there is nothing more motivating that being part of success story

Sadly for this group of young farmers the promise from the powers that be that they would continue to be part of the journey were hollow. I can tell you having been there done that a ‘thank you very much don’t call us we will call you (and don’t hold your breath)’ outcome is pretty demoralising and I was devastated speaking to some of the young farmers and hearing their disappointment .

Now these young farmers do have choices and they can challenge the process and I know a few very passionate people are already in their court ready to stand beside them to help them do it. I am telling this story because I want more great men and women in dairy to join this team to fight the good fight

I am reminded of the Theodore Roosevelt quote

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,

The man who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings;

The man who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.

So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Yes Agriculture is full of timid souls but I can assure you it is also full of leaders. Leaders who need more than token a ‘leadership alumni” they need support, ongoing training, access to bright minds and people with blue sky visions who discuss the big ideas. Sometimes they even need their hands held.

I know it can be done Art4Agriculture’s Young Farming Champions prove this to me everyday and they inspire me to keep going and excitingly they have inspired the corporate sector to invest in them.

I will give it a couple of weeks to see if I have the strength to help drive change at Dairy Australia. I am not alone in this endeavour but more farmers need to put their hands up. I look forward to them stepping up to the challenge. Its time to look long and think differently and that starts with challenging the process

HARD QUESTIONS AGRICULTURE NEEDS TO ANSWER

Last Thursday I attended my second Blueprint for Australian Agriculture Forum.

The Blueprint for Australian Agriculture is about finding a new voice and building a coherent, collaborative plan to make significant and sustainable progress.

The attendees had been tasked with determining the actions for ‘KEEPING THE BLUEPRINT ON TRACK’

There was a lot of talk in the room about agriculture’s inability to celebrate success and pivotal need to balance the hard luck stories with the good news which was too often exacerbated by the culture of some of cutting down those who dare tell a positive story

The morning commenced with an address by well-known and thought provoking CRAIG DAVIS who challenged us by saying

There’s a massive gap between the perception and the reality of Australian agribusiness. We think the world is thinking of us in the first place. We think the perception is better than it is. We think we’re a player. C’mon people, humility.

But the opportunities for Australian agribusiness are enormous. For all our misguided perceptions, the reality can and should be far stronger than most of us imagine.

Craig’s address was titled the HARD QUESTIONS AGRICULTURE NEEDS TO ANSWER and began with

When you’re born in Australia you’ve already won the lottery. We live in one of the most naturally
abundant places on earth. But are we smart enough and prepared to work hard enough to grow
our good fortune? Or will we squander it like so many lazy lottery winners? These are some of the
hard questions for Australian agribusiness to answer and the NFF Blueprint is designed to
help. But if we are prepared to take on these (and many other) challenges, there’s no room for
complacency. Like it or not, we live in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
And we’ll need a clever, coherent and compelling Brand Australia to help us realise our potential.

Craig gave the attendees some very sage advice when he said

Australian agribusiness needs to do a much better job of building engagement and relationships with customers and consumers. Strong relationships are built on a shared purpose, values, experiences and the stories that exemplify and reinforce them. So it is with strong brands.

So what makes this such a challenge for Australian agribusiness?

Two things.

First, brand ‘Australia’ has a mixed reputation for relationships in the region.

In consultations leading up to the Asian Century Whitepaper comments were made about Australia’s apathy and lack of knowledge towards Asia. Our role as a ‘seller of things’ to Asia influences the view of us – we’ll have a price negotiation on everything. We’re seen more as ‘wheeler dealers’ than relationship builders.

(You may have seen some commentary in The Land recently to back this up).

By contrast, the Canadian beef industry has been working with China for many years. Their approach has been holistic and includes partnering on genetics, live cattle, meat and production technologies.

And Fonterra’s deep and abiding partnership with China has served them nicely through thick and thin.

According to opinions canvassed through Advance, Australia’s community of professional expats, “there is a perception that Australians see things through Australian and English eyes, that we look to Washington for political approval and even resent travelling on business to Asia.”

These are not helpful characterizations for relationship building in the region.

The second reason all this matters is that the relationship model is more about purpose, meaning and values than image and communication.

A great deal of what Craig had to say resonated with me and the background behind Art4Agriculture’s raison d’etre. You can imagine I pumped my fist in the air when he said

I suggest to you that the future of Australian agriculture has a lot to do with rebuilding direct consumer and customer engagement. And there’s nothing quite like a customer focus to inform, simplify and clarify strategic planning and priorities.

What truly resonated with me was the importance of agriculture sharing the “HOW and WHY” when we tell our story.

People are overloaded and overwhelmed with information. We’re up against increasingly distracted minds. These people don’t want more communication, they want to feel connected.

The antidote to distraction is more meaning not more messaging. As Simon Sinek says, ”people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do what you do.”

…….. Clean, green and safe is what we do, not how or why we do it.

You can read this very compelling presentation on Craig’s blog here.

Footnote

Craig Davis has been at the forefront of the global advertising business for 20 years, with high level roles in Saatchi & Saatchi and J Walter Thompson working with many of the world’s biggest brands including Coca-Cola, P&G, Nestle, HSBC, Unilever, Shell, Sony, Bank of China, Toyota, Kraft, Ford and Diageo. He has judged at every major international advertising festival and delivered countless keynote addresses around the world.

Everybody including Paul Howes is an expert on farming

According to this article in The Australian – ‘Reform vital for farming’s future’ by STEFANIE BALOGH DECEMBER 01, 2013 2:03PM

INFLUENTIAL trade union leader Paul Howes says the era of “ma and pa farming” in Australia needs to end if the nation is to position itself as the food bowl of Asia.

Now firstly every man and his dog knows that Australia will never have the capacity to be the food bowl of Asia and it has nothing to do with the structure of our farms. Anyone with any knowledge of farming is with Professor Bill Bellotti on this one See Can Australia Really Feed Asia

Secondly what fascinates me about Paul Howes comments below

To future-proof the farming sector, Mr Howes said it needed to look to the United States where “you have large scale conglomerates that can diversify across different states and different feedstocks and take advantage of those different elements to be able to have sustainable, long-term investment into the sector.”

Is that it is this “large scale conglomerates” structure that the modern consumer is rebelling against. See previous post Little Golden Book Farming

As Professor Bellotti points out

It has been estimated that Australia (population 22 million) produces enough food for 60 million….

Australia’s Chief Scientist recently pointed out that while Australia’s role as a food exporting country is vital, Australian agricultural knowledge and expertise is even more valuable, benefitting an additional 200 million people, often those most vulnerable. If Australia can double or quadruple food production, and improve its natural resource base through the principle of sustainable intensification, then we will have made a tremendous contribution to humanity.

It is clear Mr Howes knows little about agriculture and the people who produce his food and fibre. Whilst no-one is saying the current structure is perfect Australian farmers are giving it a bloody good go despite falling investment in research and development says Professor Bellotti

They have remained in business despite droughts, floods, a high Australian dollar, low commodity prices, and increasingly complex regulatory and policy settings. Australian agricultural production has historically grown at around 2% per annum, an impressive result built on sustained government and industry investment in agricultural research and development.

If Australia is to greatly expand its contribution to global food security, there will need to be a significant and sustained increase in agricultural R&D, and this will need to come from both government and the private sector. But what research is needed, where is the strategic vision?

Let me assure you Mr Howes, Dad and Dave left the building in the 50’s Australia doesn’t need “large scale conglomerates” What it needs is strategic vision?

Also on this subject some highly informed content from Mick Keogh here

For someone like Mr. Howes, who makes his living representing participants in the most regulated sector of the Australian economy (the labour market) to criticise Australian farming (one of the most deregulated sectors of the Australian economy) and say it is in need of reform, shows a level of ignorance or hypocrisy that is almost breathtaking.

Thanks to http://sirwdchosen.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/meet-paul-howes.html for Cartoon

Can 70 be the new 40

This is one powerful video

I am at that point in my life when I am counting down the years to when I am going to reach 70 and hoping with everything I have that 70 is the new 40. Because for me life is just beginning

Oh to be young again and have a 5 year plan, maybe even a 10 year plan. I am one of those people who has spent all of my life second guessing the 5 and 10 year plan of those I love most in the world and pouring all of my energy into making their dream come true.

It took me a long long time to realise that being a second rate version of myself is not very rewarding and now its my turn. Everyday is now the first day of my life and I so want to make every second count.

Its time to take my own hand and lead myself down my own journey to success and show myself age does not define who or where you are. I alone make those decisions and I wont always make the best choices but they will be my choices and I still have time to leave my legacy.

So to start with, its time to stop counting jelly beans and just get on with it

BTW if you find yourself thinking along the same lines here is a link to an insightful post from Shaun Coffey. What fears are holding you back? Luck is when preparation and opportunity collide

Why does agriculture choose war over peace

It goes without saying that relationships are the key to success in business.

Customers, suppliers, legislators, consumers, media, influencers, detractors, thought leaders all of these people are important to our businesses and livestock agriculture is a business

According to their website the RSPCA is recognised by consumers as the foremost authority on animal welfare. According to a 2009 RSPCA survey the RSPCA has 84% spontaneous brand awareness and 95% prompted awareness.₎

“The overall impression of RSPCA was overwhelmingly positive…with 86% of respondents claiming to be either Positive or Very Positive towards RSPCA.” _{(RSPCA Survey 2012)}

On top of this Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world, with 63% of households owning at least one pet, and 53% owning a dog or cat.

The RSPCA aren’t the only ones doing surveys on their brand awareness and their survey aligns with independent surveys on brand awareness

Now as I discovered in July the NSW RSPCA report shows 60% of complaints to the RSPCA are about mistreatment of companion dogs and horses. See post here

Complaints about farm animals are miniscule and the real problem lies with people the RSPCA call animal hoarders. That is people who see themselves as “rescuers” of animals which in the main means people who ‘collect’ animals like cats and dogs and retired greyhounds and trotters in flabbergasting numbers and have no capacity to feed or house them.

It is also well know that the RSPCA organisation mindset is not the same in all states with agriculture becoming quite concerned to see parts of the RSPCA seemingly aligning themselves with animal activist groups.

What was I was very disappointed to see were the comments at the bottom of the article by Matt Cawood titled “Make us an ally: RSPCA”

According to the article RSPCA chairperson Lynne Bradshaw believes.

THE agriculture sector should adopt the RSPCA as an ally that can help it short-circuit future community concerns about animal welfare,

The RSPCA is one of Australia’s most powerful brands, Mrs Bradshaw told Fairfax Agricultural Media, and is the face of community aspirations concerning animal welfare.

Standing up against the RSPCA is standing up against the community, she believes. RSPCA engagement in improving agricultural practices, on the other hand, will help the sector address the more sensational attacks of the animal rights movement.

“People who join the organisation have to realise that we aren’t anti-farming. Our charter isn’t against using animals for food and fibre. That’s different to the animal rights groups, who say we shouldn’t be using animals for food,” she said.

“There are people who think that if they join RSPCA, they will change our position. But we take in a cross-section of views, and our policies are based on mainstream thinking and current science. We fund a lot of people working to improve livestock welfare.”

For pretty much all her time with RSPCA, Mrs Bradshaw has been frustrated at agriculture’s reluctance to change production methods that she believes society is finding increasingly unacceptable.

“The majority of people are concerned with the cost of food, but now there’s a real awakening to the plight of animals in intensive farming systems and during transport. More people are asking about that aspect of food production.”

Persisting with systems that antagonise the community is a self-defeating cycle, she argues.

“We’re community-driven, and the community tends to call the shots on what it perceives. The information the community is getting is that animal welfare is a hot topic.”

Media is geared for sensation, and organisations that harness the media recognise this. Every sensational exposure of animal welfare abuse heightens community pressure for better production systems.

“All the work we do behind the scenes with farmers doesn’t get reported,” Mrs Bradshaw said. “It’s the other things that leap out of the box.”

Her hope is that agriculture will recognise these shifts in community attitude, and work with RSPCA to consistently build credibility with the public.

I personally think she makes a lot of valid points

Whether the majority of agriculture sees the RSPCA as adversaries or not we can and should try to have relationships with the people who disagree with us and who agriculture sees as working against agriculture

The strength of agricultural community lies in the strength of the connections that we have with each other and everyone up and down the supply chain . With strong connections, people have the power to make real change. Building these connections takes time; but it is worth it.

The selection of strategic partners with whom we collaborate is now becoming a life or death issue for livestock agriculture

For generations agriculture has built moats between themselves and their detractors. Sadly at times we have often build moats between us and the people who buy what we produce

Today success lies in building bridges. Bridges allow you to build trust, partnerships and to develop strategic alliances, have conversations and when necessary negotiate

The RSPCA has extended an olive branch to agriculture, dare I say we would be taking a big step backwards not to have the conversation

Well said Matt Cawood

Don’t tell anyone its a secret

The Australian dairy industry is exciting, its dynamic and it has a great story to tell. I know because my family has been dairy farming in this country for almost 200 years.

But for some reason I am yet to figure out at the top it seems to be much more important to be seen as traditional and doing the right thing rather than being seen as trailblazers.

Over the past three months I have attended the farewell of chairman of two very different research and development corporations, Not only different in the food or fibre they produce but very very very different in mindset,

Tonight it was on the top floor of a 5 star hotel in the Melbourne CBD. There were lots of speeches and platitudes and references to wives at home keeping the fires burning.

The previous function was held in farmer heartland by an industry that prides itself on being trailblazers and isn’t afraid to shout if from the rooftops.

There were some things that were the same. There were lots of speeches. Very different speeches. Speeches that shared with the audience the new direction, the innovative and pioneering research that the chairman and his team had undertaken during his tenure. Then there was the handover to the new chairman. No glass ceilings in this industry. Yes a woman and it was clear that the audience believed she had the potential to take the industry to the moon and back . What was also very noticeable was the number of young people in the room, sadly lacking in Melbourne tonight

This is why I love working with young people in agriculture, they find it exciting and they want to tell people. They want to be trailblazers and they want to be the change that agriculture must have.

Will I see this at the top in the dairy industry in my lifetime? The jury is still out on that one.

What I do know is what I did hear about the ‘farmer’s wife’ mentioned in the first part of this post was she sounded awesome I wanted to hear her story.

The 2013 Grand Champion Archibull Prize winner is

There is no denying 2013 has been a big year for me with the highlight yesterday being the Award and Exhibition Ceremony that revealed the Winner of the Grand Champion Archibull for 2013

Sharing the highlights from Art4AgricultureChat

The judges have travelled over 4500km to talk to the students and view their artwork. They have spent 1000’s of hours reading blogs and reviewing PowerPoint and video entries and now the points have been collated.

The awards venue has been found, the finalists have been announced, the herd rounded up and loaded, invitations sent, community fund raising events have been held to fly rural students to Sydney, Young Farming Champions have packed their bags to take the road trip, special guests will be there and tension is mounting .

Now in the spirit of building that tension even further before we make the big announcement lets take a quick reflection on why it all began

Everybody has to eat, everybody needs to wear clothes, everybody needs to have shelter. Yet like many other people around the world Australians tend to give very little thought to the origins of where our food and fibre comes from let alone the people who grow and produce it.

As passionate producers and loud and proud producer AGvocates the team at Art4Agriculture found this sad but also exciting.

We saw this disconnect as a great opportunity to jump in and join the next generation mosh pit of bright minds and ideas for unbridled thinking and questioning and come up with new ways of having powerful conversations and forging new boundary-busting connections between producers and consumers.

What better way to do this than tap into areas that agriculture wouldn’t normally reach through art and multimedia and leverage off Australia’s most famous art prize

Hence the Archibull Prize was born.

Each year the Archibull Prize Awards and Exhibition Ceremony brings bright young Australian minds and their big ideas together to share agriculture’s story through art and multimedia

Each year the ideas get bigger, the innovation seems apparently unparalleled and the technology mind-blowing

Without further ado it gives Art4Agriculture great pleasure to introduce the winners in all three categories and the Grand Champion Archibull for 2013

1.The Champion Primary School Archibull Prize Winner is Gwynneville Public School l

The Gwynneville team with Claudia Wythes from AWI

Gwynneville Public School, Wollongong artwork entry Baa Baa Bovine

Visit their amazing blog Moo2Ewe

2. The Winner of Champion Archibull Prize (Program B) is Trangie Central School

L to R A/G Director General Dept. of Primary Industries Michael Bullen, Richie Quigley Team Trangie Central School with Sara McGrath

Trangie Central School with their artwork masterpiece combination of technology and innovation

Visit the Trangie Central School blog here

Watch their video entry here

DRUM ROLL

The winner of the Champion Archibull Program A and the Grand Champion Archibull Prize for 2013 is Shoalhaven High School

Shoalhaven High School with A/G Director General of Department of Primary Industries Michael Bullen and Sara McGrath

Grand Champion Archibull 2013

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

Visit the Shoalhaven High School Blog here

Watch their award winning video here

To view the event video and see all the action

Once we have all the official photos we will load all the results

Congratulations to all the schools and students involved you have all done agriculture very proud

Some great pix by Sally White from The Land can be found here’

To see the winner of the People’s Pick visit here

Sadly I know too much about drought

Bessie Blore is a wonderful journalist, a girl from the city who married a boy from the the bush and I am so proud to know and work with her as one of Art4Agriculture’s Wool Young Farming Champions

Our place “Burragan” is 110km from the nearest town, 200km from the nearest supermarket, and 330km from the nearest major centre – Broken Hill. When I’m not out in the paddock helping with sheep work, I like to write, keep up with global issues, and uncover the strange secrets of our beautiful bush landscape.

Bessie writes a wonderful blog Bessie at Burragan where she shares the highs and lows, the laughs and the not so funny moments with her readers

I have been away for a week and the drive up the hill on Friday tugged at my heart strings.

The front paddock tells it all, the cows rotate around the farm every 14 days. It is 14 days since they were in this paddock and whilst it has a green tinge there is nothing for the cows to eat.

On my travels last week I went through Tamworth on my way to Gunnedah – there is no feed in the paddocks for the cattle there either. It was depressing and unfortunately those farmers are not alone. Much of NSW and a great deal of Queensland are once again in drought.

Unlike me Bessie is new to the ravages of drought but she tells it so like it is in this wonderful blog post

I don’t know much about drought. Even when I saw her face, I didn’t recognise her.
Years before I moved to Burragan, we visited ST’s mum and dad one summer. Their house yard was a true oasis in the middle of a desert, in every sense. Outside the confines of the garden fence, they were feeding hay to cattle and saving animals from of empty, muddy dams. At the time, I didn’t realise that was what she looked like.

I don’t know much about drought. But I know that she’s inevitable.
I am lucky – or perhaps unlucky and lulled into a false sense of beauty and romance – to have moved to Burragan in the middle of several great seasons. This year, we’ve already had our annual average 11-inches of rainfall. We are thankful for that. And yet it’s dry. It’s dusty. It’s only getting hotter.

I don’t know much about drought. But I can feel her creeping up on us.
The signs are there. Selling stock. Buying hay. Blowing bores. Boggy dams. Empty tanks. Moving stock. Fierce winds. Thunderstorms that are no longer viewed as salvation, but instead, as fire threats. Those afternoons that smelt like rain; but when they came, they looked, and felt, and taste, like dust. Perpetrations for a dry summer.

I don’t know much about drought. But I know she’s more than a lack of rain.
She’s stress. She’s suffocation. She’s the haunted eyes of men whose strength is buckled by the weight of the world, and women who wish they could take the load off.
I don’t know much about drought. But I wonder if we will recognise each other, when we meet again.
I know we can’t be friends, and yet, to survive in this environment I cannot view her as the enemy.
We might have to learn to get along for quite a while.

How I long for the farm to look like this again and for farmers everywhere to see drought pack its bags and go into hibernation

Adrian Piccoli has missed the point

I remember spending much of my high school education at Cowra High School staring out the window wondering when the content of the lesson would peak my interest. These days I suppose I would have ended up in the gifted and talented class if it existed at my school.

Everybody wants the best education for their children

I wasn’t gifted and talented at everything. OMG my maths teacher (the gorgeous Mr Hannah who ended up head teacher of Maths at Riverview) poured his heart and soul into me to no avail despite his best efforts but I certainly had the occasional champion teacher who recognised my strengths and did their best to progress them. Sadly at that time I wasn’t savvy enough to recognise how much these people could have opened my eyes to the career pathways I could have followed.

In my day bright students in rural and regional Australia were encouraged by Careers Advisors to become Doctors & Vets. With neither of these careers appealing to me (mainly because I just knew I couldn’t operate on living/breathing people /animals ) I decided my career pathway lay in becoming a lawyer or a pharmacist.

It appeared my destiny was determined when I got an early entry scholarship to do arts/law at ANU but when all of my friends chose Sydney Uni I decided pharmacy was for me (mainly because at the time it was the shortest degree that offered the best earning opportunities for women – see footnote)

Recently Adrian Piccoli Minister for Education in NSW announced

TEACHERS will be offered $10,000 cash, heavily subsidised rent and 10-week trial periods among incentives to get more staff into hard-to-fill classrooms in some of the most isolated regions.

The measures were part of an $80 million plan announced yesterday in a bid to lift results in struggling remote and regional schools.

But principals said better incentives were needed to attract and keep high-quality teachers to rural and remote areas after decades of government neglect.

More than $30 million has been set aside over the next four years for the teacher incentives, as well as $8 million for the creation of a “virtual secondary school” – offering online subjects and selective classes which would otherwise be unavailable in remote areas.

I have just spent the last fortnight travelling between ACT, western NSW to Trangie and Junee and to Rockhampton in Queensland with the art judge for the Archibull Prize and I can assure you those teachers Adrian Piccoli is hoping to attract with his incentive schemes are already in rural and regional Australia and Art4Agriculture has identified many of them.

Its time Adrian Piccoli and people like him went to Northlakes High School, Tuggerah Lakes Secondary School Berkeley Vale Campus, Shoalhaven High School, Junee High School, Boorowa Central School and Trangie Central School, Gunnedah High School and Theodore Primary School (ACT) to name but a few and talked to these teachers and listened. Like most things we need to listen to the best marketing advice – spend your time and money on retaining the customers you have rather than wasting energy and dollars on attracting new ones.

After visiting these schools I can assure you Adrian Piccoli champion teachers in Rural and Regional Australia can deliver the best and the brightest equally as any school you nominate in NSW. You just have to invest in their communities, their schools and them and their peers will follow.

Footnote: Pharmacy in my day was a wonderful career choice for people who really cared about people sadly today Federal Government policy often drives economics over community good outcomes