Mr. Donnacha Anhold:

As I said earlier, the reason we are here is that arbitration or the contentious legal process takes time. It is lengthy and expensive and so on and so forth. Farmers often do not want to get involved in an extra process which costs a lot of money and can take a lot of time. These are urgent issues that are affecting farmers in their 60s, 70s and 80s, who want them dealt with straightaway. They want somebody to talk to them and deal with these issues now. Obviously, it would always be the situation that litigation or contentious legal matters should be avoided at all costs. All other aspects should be looked at first before getting to that point.

On the contracts alone, many of them are old and date back to perhaps the early 2000s. They might not be what would normally be provided for today. I have only come into the matters recently, since they got contentious in the last few years. To answer the Senator's question, legal advice was taken by the farm partners at the time the contracts were signed, or at least another law firm would have assisted them with the contracts. That being said, a lot of the time issues only arise when the farmer becomes aware of how the issues are arising. The farmers want to deal with them in advance of going to litigation. Parties should always talk and try to resolve their issues, difficulties and differences before heading in that direction. That is really what the farmers are looking for. It is the reason they are here. They are asking for engagement, communication, openness, transparency and details in relation to the deals. I take on board what the Senator is saying. There is a method of forcing that, but there is always a better way, another way or a different way. There is always a way for parties to talk to each other. That is what should always be investigated, looked at or searched for in advance of going to contentious matters, arbitration, the legal process or whatever it is.