Welcome to eastAUSmilk Mike Smith

EastAUSmilk last week welcomed our new addition Mike Smith to our team. Mike will begin a part-time role as eastAUSmilk’s government relations manager. Mike replaces Shaughn Morgan who has been undertaking this role until his departure in April.

Mike has a long history of working within government, including within ministerial offices. He finished in government in recent months with his last job as the chief of staff for the Queensland water minister. Mike is extremely well connected within the Australian Labor Party throughout Australia which will be a great asset for eastAUSmilk with a Labor government in power in Canberra, Sydney, and Brisbane.

Mike has previously worked for QDO in a consulting role before returning to government over 5 years ago. Mike is extremely professional and plans his work in a thorough and methodical way. Mike is always very focused on his priorities and achieving outcomes in key outcomes for eastAUSmilk and dairy farmers in Queensland and NSW.

Mike will meet with the board of eastAUSmilk this week. Mike has developed a detailed document about how to lobby governments in Australia. It will be very useful for the board to better understand the keys to lobbying given how central this role is to eastAUSmilk. In addition, Mike has prepared a detailed government relations work plan that the board will review.

There are several key issues for eastAUSmilk that Mike will government on. This includes gaining funding for key projects for eastAUSmilk and solving the competition problems in the industry, especially between retailers and the industry. Also, the government’s appetite for transformational change to industry structures was the key outcome of the Dairy Plan which has to date been ignored.

Please welcome Mike to his role at eastAUSmilk. I expect Mike to be a valuable asset for eastAUSmilk, dairy farmers and our partners in the Queensland and NSW dairy industry.

Eric Danzi, CEO eastAUSmilk