AUGUST 2025
. 10 POWER
PASSION AND THE
lessen competition in farming regions across Australia. David Jochinke NATIONAL FARMERS’ FEDERATION PRESIDENT T he Man from Murra Warra, In 2025, their reach stretches from the paddocks to the parliament, from the shearing shed to the shipping dock. Some make headlines, others prefer to work quietly behind the scenes, but all leave a mark on how regional Australia grows, trades and thrives. This is AgJournal’s line-up of the great and powerful for the year ahead — the names to know, the forces to watch and the stories behind why they matter. Canberra — the first VFF leader to also serve as National Farmers’ Federation president. Taking over the reins from the media savvy Fiona Simson, the Wimmera farmer made waves in his first weeks in the job by taking aim at the Albanese government and then agriculture minister Murray Watt in particular. Jochinke has since led the Keep Farmers Farming campaign and led a rally on Canberra to send a message to federal powerbrokers over everything from live export bans to rising red tape. Stepping down in October, whoever Jochinke’s successor is will face both internal issues with the recent resignation of NFF chief executive Troy Williams after David Jochinke built a profile for agri-advocacy as president of the Victorian Farmers Federation before the switch to T HE power players of rural and regional Australia are a diverse and surprising bunch. Some are more accustomed to the corridors of power in Canberra or the boardrooms of Collins St than the main streets of Cooma or Charleville. They come from every corner of influence: bushies and billionaires, politicians and pastoralists, innovators and investors. Some work the land, others shape the laws, control the supply chains or direct the capital that keeps the wheels turning. Together, they influence the daily lives of millions of Australians outside our capital cities — and, more often than not, those within them.
The 100 movers and shakers shaping rural and regional Australia have one thing in common _ resolve, write JAMES WAGSTAFF, ALEX SINNOTT and TALLIS MILES
Mick Keogh ACCC DEPUTY CHAIRMAN W hen inaugural Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels wrote about his life as the nation’s consumer watchdog, he titled his autobiography: Tough Customer. Mick Keogh hasn’t reached the ACCC pinnacle yet but in his role as the watchdog’s second-in-command, he’s had to make a number of tough calls in the agricultural space at a time of economic transformation. From 2003 to 2018, he was executive director of the Australian Farm Institute before making the move to the ACCC seven years ago. Since then, the rollout of the mandatory dairy code of conduct has consumed plenty of his time as has supermarket competition and its impact on primary producers as well as consolidation of the troubled dairy processing sector. The most recent agri call in his inbox has been Elders proposed $475 million takeover of Delta Agribusiness. The ACCC has flagged concerns the deal would substantially
Don Farrell FEDERAL TRADE MINISTER D onald Trump famously
Anthony Albanese PRIME MINISTER I n the weeks before the May 2025 election, Anthony Albanese and his cabinet
published The Art of the Deal back in his 1980s heyday as a property
developer. It would not be surprising if another political Donald — Australian
were quietly confident of
winning a second term. But even the truest of Labor true believers didn’t see
Trade Minister Don Farrell — has a dog- eared paperback in his well-travelled briefcase. The South Australian senator and vineyard owner is arguably the most powerful agricultural figure in cabinet in this new world of tariffs and trade barriers. While the American President has created some trans- Pacific headaches for Senator Farrell, there’s also some surprising spin-offs. The European Union’s drawn-out trade negotiations with Australia over geographical indications and other regulations has gone from the slow lane into a new gear as Brussels seeks new friends away from an isolationist Washington DC.
one of the biggest electoral victories in Australian history on the horizon. Eclipsing even the political popularity of Silver Bodgie himself, Bob Hawke, Albanese won a hefty 94 seats in the 150 seat House of Representatives. But of that 94, few were truly regional — the numbers were run up the board by an absolute schlacking of the Coalition in urban Australia. So will the Man from Marrickville reach out to the voters beyond the suburban belt when his parliamentary majority is all-conquering? Rural watchers are looking to what further work the PM achieves on drought relief, trade and regional infrastructure in his second term.
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