TASMANIA has pulled out of troubled peak vegetable body AusVeg.

The decision follows AusVeg's refusal to accept former chairman Mike Badcock as Tasmania's representative.

Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association acting general manager Chris Oldfield said Mr Badcock was "the ideal candidate - being a past AusVeg chairman, a committee member of the TFGA vegetable council and the TFGA water standing committee".

Mr Oldfield said the TFGA requested an explanation for the refusal as well as a selection criteria in writing, which it claimed AusVeg failed to produce.

"If we're paying money then we want say in who's representing us," Mr Oldfield said. "We're still involved with Horticulture Australia Ltd and the NFF - we don't believe our members will suffer."

The refusal comes just eight weeks after AusVeg made its constitution more inclusive - a change partly created by Mr Badcock, who declined to comment.

But AusVeg chief executive Rob Lawler said TFGA "hadn't come back to us" after he visited Tasmania with former board chair David Anderson. He said Tasmania's nomination had failed to get through the director's selection committee.

"We went down there to explain, I don't know what more we can do," Mr Lawler said.

 

*This news is a quote from the「WeeklyTimesNow」.