WoolPoll chairman Rich Keniry at Bendigo.

WOOLPOLL panel chairman Rich Keniry is keen to promote what he believes will be a more streamlined voting process in the 2024 levy ballot.

Australian wool growers currently pay 1.5 percent of their gross greasy wool sales to Australian Wool Innovation and in the 2024 ballot eligible levy payers will decide the rate they will pay for the next three years – 2025/26-2027/28.

At the Australian Sheep and Wool Show on the weekend, Mr Keniry doubted that lower wool prices and falling confidence in the sheep and wool industry would diminish the 2024 voter turnout for the 2024 levy ballot.

Mr Keniry said the panel had recognised previous voter information packs had been too lengthy and too hard to understand.

“So we’ve made a real conscious effort to condense that down.

“It’s down to eight pages, down from 20-odd pages in the past,” he said.

“We’ve made it a concise document so that the whole (completion) process is five minutes.

“We wanted to make sure that information presented in relation to the levy rates was clear and concise.”

The 2024 WoolPoll voter information kit has been with the Minister for Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Murray Watt since 24 June and once approved, will be sent to eligible wool levy payers with their voting papers in September.  Voting opens on 20 September and closes at 5pm AEDT on 1 November.

Mr Keniry said the panel worked hard with Australian Wool Innovation so that it clearly stated in the voter information kit what it can deliver in research, development and marketing at different levy rates. The kit has been approved the panel before being forwarded to Mr Watt.

Hopefully, Mr Watt will approve the voter information kit in the next couple of weeks, he said. The Wool Services Privatisation Act stipulates the panel must email or mail the kit with voting papers by 20 September, Mr Keniry said. AWI will also upload the approved information kit on their website.

“The critical thing for growers right now is to make sure their details are up to date.

“So if there have been any changes in their business in the last 12 months they should contact AWI and make sure that there details are up to date.”

Mr Keniry said the panel’s aim is to increase the WoolPoll voter turnout.

“The campaign that we’re doing together (with AWI) to encourage people to vote is about taking ownership, it’s about letting them have their own say.

“It is up to the individual grower to decide how much they want to invest into AWI,” he said.

“It’s a choice on investment of their own dollars into AWI to do research development and marketing.

“So if they don’t see that as having value then that’s their choice,” Mr Keniry said.

“What we are trying to do is to actually encourage them to see that here is an opportunity for them to make a decision into the future of the wool industry.”

Friday 15 November: The WoolPoll result will be announced at AWI’s annual general meeting on 15 November and the levy rate takes effect from 1 July 2025.

More information: www.woolpoll.com.au