{"id":225282,"date":"2018-12-11T21:20:33","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T11:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=225282"},"modified":"2018-12-11T21:20:33","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T11:20:33","slug":"hand-over-the-keys-agforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand Over The Keys: AgForce"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Georgie<\/a>
AgForce Qld president Georgie Somerset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

December 11, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

AgForce has demanded the State Government hand the agricultural colleges at Longreach and Emerald back to industry if the bureaucracy was unable to successfully manage them.<\/p>\n

General President Georgie Somerset said the colleges were too important to agriculture, and to the many rural and regional communities that depended on agriculture, to allow them to be axed.<\/p>\n

“We believe these are unique, irreplaceable assets and we are currently engaging with organisations and community groups around the State to elicit their support and ideas to save them,” Mrs Somerset said.<\/p>\n

“The response so far has been overwhelmingly in favour of an industry-led solution.<\/p>\n

“AgForce’s plan is to overhaul these institutions and the services they offer to form the backbone of a comprehensive, future-looking rural research and education system that offers benefits beyond agriculture.<\/p>\n

“These well-equipped colleges, with their unique locations and infrastructure, offer opportunities to support profitable and sustainable agriculture in areas like carbon-neutral farming, drought mitigation, flora and fauna conservation, reef preservation and increased Indigenous and female participation.”<\/p>\n

Mrs Somerset said this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for agriculture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“AgForce strongly believes it is time for much-needed reform to the education and skills training available to rural Queenslanders,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But the government has thrown its hands in the air and, without any industry consultation, decided to close the colleges because they cannot make them relevant to the end user.<\/p>\n

“We firmly believe that industry itself is best placed to oversee innovative, outcomes-focused research, education and skills training that will ensure our broadacre agriculture continues to grow as a world leader.<\/p>\n

“As the peak body for broadacre agriculture – and Australia’s only State farming organisation accredited as an RTO – AgForce has the expertise, the will and the remit to lead this initiative.<\/p>\n

“We are already having informative discussions with producers, community organisations, Councils, MPs and others throughout Queensland, as well as with other primary producer peak bodies.<\/p>\n

“The reaction we are getting is tremendously encouraging and gives us great confidence that not only are we doing the right thing, but that, with the support of rural and regional Queensland, we can make this work.<\/p>\n

“People in the bush are accustomed to looking out for themselves when Government fails to listen or act.<\/p>\n

“This is another example of us stepping up to secure the future of our industry, and its multi-billion contribution to the State economy.”<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Agriculture Minister and Member for Maranoa David Littleproud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud supported the call for the State Government to hand over the keys to Longreach and Emerald agricultural colleges to the farm industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

AgForce has called for the keys to be handed over, saying this could be an opportunity to reform and modernise education and skills available to rural Queenslanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Labor cut vital education services in Brisbane, people would be outraged,\u201d Mr Littleproud said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most callous act in living memory.\u00a0While the rest of the country is trying to build up these drought-ravaged communities the State Government is trying to tear them down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Queensland Government needs to hand the keys to the colleges back to people who care about agriculture and our food supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cQueensland Labor wrote off $5 million for a Sunshine Coast TAFE. They should hand over the keys to Longreach and Emerald and help fund them to get them going.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor should have consulted with AgForce and other farm groups before killing these colleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur farmers grow our food and without agricultural colleges, we don\u2019t have the next generation coming through to grow that food. <\/p>\n

“Brisbane folk eat the food we grow them out here in country Queensland, and we need them to fight for us on this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese colleges could be teaching our young people the sustainable farming methods of the future. Instead they\u2019ll sit empty, if Labor gets its way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there\u2019s the job losses from these small rural communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrisbane understands it can\u2019t function without rural Queensland. We supply the food and a good portion of the budget.<\/p>\n

“We need Labor to understand that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AgForce has demanded the State Government hand the agricultural colleges at Longreach and Emerald back to industry if the bureaucracy was unable to successfully manage them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":50237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,36],"tags":[1134],"yoast_head":"\nHand Over The Keys: AgForce - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AgForce has demanded the State Government hand the agricultural colleges at Longreach and Emerald back to industry if the bureaucracy was unable to successfully manage them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hand Over The Keys: AgForce - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AgForce has demanded the State Government hand the agricultural colleges at Longreach and Emerald back to industry if the bureaucracy was unable to successfully manage them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-11T11:20:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/georgie-somerset-f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/\",\"name\":\"Hand Over The Keys: AgForce - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-11T11:20:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-11T11:20:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"AgForce has demanded the State Government hand the agricultural colleges at Longreach and Emerald back to industry if the bureaucracy was unable to successfully manage them.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hand Over The Keys: AgForce - southburnett.com.au","description":"AgForce has demanded the State Government hand the agricultural colleges at Longreach and Emerald back to industry if the bureaucracy was unable to successfully manage them.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hand Over The Keys: AgForce - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"AgForce has demanded the State Government hand the agricultural colleges at Longreach and Emerald back to industry if the bureaucracy was unable to successfully manage them.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2018-12-11T11:20:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"300","height":"200","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/georgie-somerset-f.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/","name":"Hand Over The Keys: AgForce - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-12-11T11:20:33+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-11T11:20:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"AgForce has demanded the State Government hand the agricultural colleges at Longreach and Emerald back to industry if the bureaucracy was unable to successfully manage them.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/11\/hand-over-the-keys-agforce\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225290,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225282\/revisions\/225290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}