Dairy Australia appoints new Board Directors at 2021 AGM

Dairy Australia members elected three Board Directors at the organisation’s 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was held online on 23 November 2021.

Simone Jolliffe was elected as a Milk Producer Director and Russell Abotomey was elected as a   Director with dairy supply chain and product promotion skills. Current Dairy Australia Board member and Chair, James Mann was re-elected as a Milk Producer Director. 

Mr Mann addressed the online meeting from the DairySA office at Mount Gambier in South Australia and congratulated the new Directors on their appointments:

“We welcome Simone and Russell to the Dairy Australia Board and congratulate them both on their election. They both bring significant farming and business expertise which will assist Dairy Australia to continue to deliver for farmers and the dairy industry.

“Graeme Nicoll and David Lord retired from the Board today. Both have made an exceptional contribution to our organisation and I thank them for their service to the Dairy Australia Board and the dairy industry.”
 
In addition, members voted on a number of special resolutions to modify Dairy Australia’s constitution. These resolutions are designed to enable increased attendance at future meetings, including allowing future meetings to be conducted virtually and permitting direct voting so that members can participate in decision making at general meetings. Other changes relate to enabling Dairy Australia to provide electronic notices to members, simplifying majority voting for candidate elections and the ability for the Board to appoint a Returning Officer to oversee elections.

Mr Mann, who was re-elected as Chair at a Board meeting following the AGM, addressed members in a speech focused on the future of the dairy industry, including the opportunity for dairy farmers to make additional income from non-production activities such as carbon farming. Dairy Australia’s role in this is to work out the opportunities and systems to support this. Mr Mann also spoke to the positivity within the industry at present. “Commodity prices and seasons have aligned to provide a genuine increase in farm profitability across the country and a sense of optimism. It’s a great time to be a farmer. But it’s a particularly great time to be a dairy farmer,” he said.

The results of the AGM as well as a recording of the meeting will be available via our website www.dairyaustralia.com.au/AGM