Review of MLA process for registering and determining voting entitlements

Summary

​The industry issues portfolio provides support to Peak Industry Councils by commissioning and managing the development of policy research on priority industry issues.
Livestock producers experience some confusion over the current Levy Notice and voting entitlement process undertaken by MLA.  
 
This report was commissioned to provide the following analysis:
 
(a) Investigate the exisitng process for identifying levy payers and calculating voting entitlements and propose alternatives and improvements to enhance automation, transparency and accuracy by:
Simplifying the process of identifying levy-payers, membership applications and voting entitlements;
Reducing the administrative burden on producers;
Improving the accuracy of the enititlememt calculation and;
through this process improving confidence in the process.
(b) Provide a preliminary view on the feasibility of a proposal being considered by the Cattle Council of Australi to introduce a value added levy (VAL).
The report provided a full analysis of various model options including cost/benefit and barriers to adoption.    The report concluded that while all three final options (narrowed down from broader list) would provide a viable and affordable solution to meet MLAs levy payer data needs the legislated pathway is worthy of priority consideration due to the superio quality of the data it provides, the ability to use this data for identifying levy payers, to assist with membership registration and in automating allocations of voting entitlements. .  This model would provide greater accuracy and transparency thus leading to increased producer confidence in the voting process.