A tax storm is brewing 10

vegetablesWA CEO’s Report

3 MINISTER for Agriculture and Food, Alannah MacTiernan, opens the Carnarvon Growers Association Field Day.

BY JOHN SHANNON CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, VEGETABLESWA

As we have gone through the latest state election, I have continued to work to ensure that any government will best look after the interests of the Western Australian (WA) vegetable industry.

In addition to support for our financial analysis and benchmarking program, and our labour scheme facilitator, we have also discussed important reforms to the water and biosecurity acts.

I have been pleased that the Labor party has agreed to support many of the initiatives that vegetablesWA believes will progress the industry.

We have also had good support from the Liberal and National parties. The February COVID-19 lockdown was soon overshadowed by bushfires, flooding and a new outbreak of Queensland Fruit Fly (Qfly) in Coolbellup, where a female and male were trapped. I’ll start by touching on the COVID-19 incident that impacted most of you in late January and early February. From my perspective, there is one main takeaway from the recent virus scare and lockdown.

3 CARNARVON Growers Association Field Day.

I encourage you to use the free SafeWA Growers need to be prepared, because there is no guarantee this incident won’t phone app to register your attendance at various businesses and venues. be repeated. The ‘Tool Time’ section of this magazine This means preparing your business, staff and goes into greater detail about this free phone app. processes. I also highly recommend From a practical perspective, you should stock up on face masks and hand sanitiser. Familiarise yourself with the G2G PASS system. you go to the ‘COVID-19 Resources’ page on our website, as we have put together a catalogue of everything you need to Familiarise yourself with the safeguard yourself in the G2G PASS system and if you are event of another outbreak. an employer, prepare a letter that employees can use to explain why they need to travel across different regions, if they need to do so. At the time of writing this, two of my staff members are in Carnarvon, visiting growers impacted by the flooding in early February and discussing the Mandatory contact registers have been path forward. expanded in WA and failing to comply with these new requirements could result in penalties of up to $50,000 for an individual and $250,000 for a body corporate, or 12 months' imprisonment. Truyen Vo, our Vietnamese extension officer, is trying to encourage water and soil tests to avoid any food safety issues resulting from the flooding.