Pamu defends voting power

Pamu general manager livestock Steve Tickner told Beef + Lamb NZ annual meeting in New Plymouth today that the SOE’s business covers the whole country.

“We are concerned about what happens around the regions as well and we reserve the right to have that say.

“We are not there to politicise agriculture.”

He was speaking on a farmer remit on “the risk and inequity involved in weighted voting.”

Otago farmer Hamish Carswell wants the impact of the “weighted vote” on decisions is reviewed and reported back to farmer levy payers in order to understand how this mechanism influences outcomes.

Carswell claims within the B+LNZ constitution there are a number of significant decisions that are impacted by the “weighted” vote.

“This means that farm businesses which have more stock units have a proportionally increased voting impact. Whilst this is not unusual, there are concerns from many farmers, that the democratic process can disproportionately disadvantage farmers with smaller holdings.

“Of particular concern is the influence of government-owned farms (and others with significant resources available) in the democratic process, especially when government policy needs to be challenged on the farmers’ behalf, which clearly is a conflict of interest.”

But Tickner says it supported weighted voting.

“We report to an independent board and our outcomes are not designed to influence anyone else.

“We are not there to disrupt the industry and we are very proud of the position we take within the industry.”

The B+LNZ says no single farming entity holds a large enough proportion of stock numbers to influence its decision-making and B+LNZ is not subject to any Government influence from the weighted vote.

The remit vote result will be known in a few days..