AHBIC continues to work hard for our industry through lobbying and meeting with ministers.  One overlooked area is the numbers of meetings AHBIC attends to ensure positive outcomes for our industry and our levy monies.  Meetings with PHA, DAFF, Agrifutures and DFAT to name a few.  These meetings are time consuming over the course of a year.  Add all the varroa related meetings and briefings since June 2022 and I am proud of AHBIC achievements outside the varroa area with limited resources.

Industry owes a huge thank you to our CEO – Danny for his diligence, work ethos and professionalism that made sure all these important events were attended and had valuable input from our industry.  I also thank the member bodies and the executive for their time at meetings to provide guidance to the CEO throughout this challenging period.

I cannot stress enough the huge achievement it was to secure the Transition to Management plan for varroa over two years.  A two year Transition to Management time frame has NOT been achieved for any other biosecurity response – and there have been quite a few.  This was achieved by a lot of networking and lobbying by mainly Danny but also Bianca Giggins.  A HUGE thank you to you both.

Congress 

A recent members meeting agreed for AHBIC to conduct a congress in 2026.  AHBIC is in the process of forming a congress organizing committee.

Levies

AHBIC continues to lobby against the 10% increase in our honey levy for the Border Biosecurity Levy that the Australian Government recently announced. AHBIC have joined most Agricultural industries in lobbying against this new tax.

Honey levies

Honey levies will be a point of discussion at all member body AGM/conferences this year.  Our industry is required to pay back our share of the varroa response.  Member bodies at an AHBIC members meeting have agreed to increase our honey levy by 1c/kg until the debt is paid off.  Part of the formal process to increase the levy and repay the monies includes consultation with industry. The first part of this wide consultation will be at member body AGM/conferences.

To that end all beekeepers should be supporting their state conferences to get the latest information on varroa AND have a say on the proposed levy increase.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR INDUSTRY?

I urge you to subscribe to the AHBIC newsletter AND your state association newsletter/magazine.

Stephen Targett

Chair