THE grain grower revolution is ready to stage its second assault on the Victorian Farmers Federation to remove president Emma Germano from her role and her seat on the peak agricultural body’s board.
Grain growers also want vice-president Danyel Cucinotta removed and plans to install former VFF president and Victorian MP Paul Weller as interim president to see out the last 18 months of the current term.
The rebel group’s first bid to force an extraordinary general meeting fell over when it failed to provide the VFF with written notice of its intentions, according to former VFF grains group president and Mallee farmer Brett Hosking.
But as he and fellow organisers Andrew Weidemann and Ashley Fraser gather the signatures necessary to trigger the EGM, Mr Hosking said this time every step had been signed off by lawyers.
“The first time we told the VFF what we were doing but didn’t realise under the Corporations Act the notice has to be in writing – so now it is,” he told North West Farmer.
“We have provided formal notice, drafted by our solicitor, to VFF the company, and our legal team has also drafted our resolutions.
“The VFF requires 100 member signatures and we already have more than that, but under the Corporations Act you need 5 per cent of your members, so we are aiming for 250 signatures just to be sure.”
While Ms Germano and Ms Cucinotta have declined to comment on the resolutions looking to sack them, Ms Germano has previously conceded “while any member of the VFF that meets the constitutional requirements can rightly call for an EGM, the VFF board completely rejects the premise of the resolution”.
She has told reporters the VFF was “now in its strongest financial position in years, having paid down debt, reduced unnecessary expenditure, moved away from using debt to fund operations and has turned a much-needed operating surplus”.
Ms Germano dismissed the rebel group as a “vocal minority” entitled to have its say, but claimed it in no way represented “the thousands of VFF members who loud and clear voted for change and transformation during the past four years”.
However, Mr Hosking said the proposed EGM was being driven by the grassroots membership because “change is badly needed”.
Confident they will have the numbers at a general meeting vote, he said the status quo had nothing to offer the VFF in the future.
“Change is badly needed and we think the problem is leadership and lack of communicating openly and honestly with the members – the VFF’s sole purpose is to advocate on behalf of its farmer members.”
Dair farmer Paul Weller – who served as Member for Rodney between 2006 and 2014 and was VFF president from 2002 to 2005 – was originally approached to join the board as an independent.
But he said that soon led to an approach to fill in as interim president if the former grains group presidents were successful in their campaign.
“I genuinely think my role in those 18 months would be to restore the processes and structures, to get them right and to regain the confidence of the members out there in the branches across the state,” Mr Weller said.
“A membership which has taken a hit in recent years because the last thing those farmers want to see and hear is public bickering and internal squabbling.”
