GRAINS Research and Development Corporation chairman, Keith Perrett, says he believes farmers will not be fazed by the reported salaries being paid to top rural research and development executives if they look at the results they are achieving.
Mr Perrett, who is also a farmer from the NSW Liverpool Plains region, defended claims of "obscene" salaries made by Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, last week by arguing his organisation had made a significant cut already to the pay packet of managing director, Peter Reading, and had also made big cuts to overall running costs.
Mr Perrett, who was noticeably annoyed the GRDC was singled out by the minister, said Mr Burke was already aware that when Mr Reading's contract finished at the end of the 2008-09 financial year, his contract had been renewed but with much less money on offer.
"GRDC had held meetings with our managing director and renewed his contract for a further 12 months at a significant discount because that's where the market's at," Mr Perrett said.
"GRDC attracts people internationally and we employ the best people to do the job properly and GRDC is certainly a leader in the way we push productivity.
"We need good people to do that, and we pay what the market is at the time.
"In the current environment, the market has moved backwards from those peak times.
"The current remuneration for the managing director or his new contract reflects that, and that was certainly confirmed at the April board meeting."
Mr Perrett said it would be hard to employ senior executives for under $250,000 these days.
He said rather than being too concerned about the salaries being paid at these organisations, most farmers should be concentrating on the results from the research and development corporations.
"It's important to make sure your organisation is delivering results and GRDC is delivering results.
"It's one reason I'm quite pleased to see a productivity commission inquiry and I'll be pleased to work with them and watch them focus on GRDC to show where GRDC is leading in many areas.
"Where it's delivering efficiencies and if I look at the overall running of the organisation, in the last three years we've actually had an 11 per cent decrease in real costs of running the organisation.
"That's fairly significant and a lot more than an MD's salary.
"To drive those sorts of efficiencies while maintaining a culture within the organisation you need very good people at the top."
Su McCloskey, from the Council of Rural Research and Development Corporation Chairs, said she would not speculate on individual salaries as they were set independently by the boards at each organisation, mostly in line with similar pay rates in the same market.
Ms McCloskey said all organisations were keen to see the terms of reference for the productivity inquiry so they would know just how far-reaching the investigation would be.
"We would say that there is never enough money for rural research, and I feel the productivity commission review will provide an opportunity to make the case that increased investment in rural research is essential for productivity growth."
She said an independent evaluation carried out for the council in 2008 found that for every dollar spent on rural research there was an $11 return on investment.
A similar report is expected to be released before Christmas.
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