The two-day meeting addressed issues concerning all NSW farmers, with water buybacks, property rights and beef labelling being the big ticket items.

Executive councillor for the Griffith branch of the Farmers’ Association John Ward said local farmers used the meeting’s open forum as a chance to get their concerns heard.

“Local representatives of the Griffith farming community vented their anger at the indiscriminate pro-cess of water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin plan,” Mr Ward said.

“We were able to respond to the farmers and let them know we were supportive of the NFF (National Farmers’ Federation) position – that the plan be deferred until a more accurate approach of how the Government is going to manage the process and until they’ve evaluated all the socio-economic impacts.

“At the moment the plan is being put together on the run.”

Mr Ward said a major step forward had also been made with the decision on beef labelling.

“The clear and correct labelling of beef in Australia will give our consumers the chance to choose what they want to buy; if they prefer local produce or imported. It was a great outcome,” Mr Ward said.

Concerns about unlabelled beef products reached breaking point when the Government lifted a ban on imports from countries that have had outbreaks of mad cow disease.

The Government has since backflipped on its decision to lift the ban, but the NSW Farmers’ Association declared any future imported beef should be labelled to support local industry and keep consumers informed.