Frequently Asked Questions

Hort Innovation has made it easier for levy payers to receive one vote. One vote can be attained by completing an Annual Levy Return and ticking the horticultural products for which levies have been paid. The levy paying Member will no longer have to submit levy amounts paid. In order to qualify for voting rights, the Member must have been liable for $200 or more of levies in the last financial year.

One additional vote is provided for every $10,000 in average levies for the past three financial years. In order to secure more than one voting right, the levy amounts paid by horticultural product must be submitted on the Annual Levy Return form.

An Annual Levy Return is how a levy paying Member of Hort Innovation can verify the amount of levy paid during a financial year so that voting rights can be calculated.

Please note: The Hort Innovation Annual Levy Return is not the same as a return submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

The Annual Levy Return also includes verification of the amount of Producer Contributions paid by almond, blueberry, pistachio, pyrethrum, processing tomato industry participants who are Members of Hort Innovation.

A Member’s Annual Levy Return determines the number of voting rights allocated to that Member which they can then use to vote on a resolution put to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Hort Innovation or any other general meeting of Members. If an Annual Levy Return is not completed, a Member will not be entitled to vote.

Please note: An Annual Levy Return may be completed by a levy payer. A levy payer is the company who is primarily responsible for paying the levy from its income. A company who pays levies to the government after collecting them from other levy payers is a levy aggregator and is not eligible to complete an Annual Levy Return for those collected levy payments. 

The Annual Levy Return should be completed by a person who is authorised by the Member and has sufficient knowledge to be sure that the Annual Levy Return contains a true and correct estimate of the amount of levy paid during the relevant financial year.

Yes. In order to be allocated voting rights for the coming year (ie: for the 2024 AGM or any other general meeting of Members through the 2024/25 year), Members must submit an Annual Levy Return for the 2023/24 financial year. 

The Annual Levy Return you completed last year was for the 2022/23 financial year. In order to verify your status as a current levy payer, and to allocate the appropriate amount of votes to you, you need to let us know the amount of levy you paid in the 2023/24 financial year.

The answer to this question depends on each Member’s circumstances. 

If you did complete an Annual Levy Return for each of 2021/22 and 2022/23: 

• A levy paying Member who did complete and submit an Annual Levy Return in both 2021/22 and 2022/23 will only need to complete an Annual Levy Return for the 2023/24 financial year.

If you did not complete an Annual Levy Return for either of 2021/22 or 2022/23: 

• A levy paying Member who did not complete an Annual Levy Return in 2021/22 or 2022/23 may either:

1. Complete and submit an Annual Levy Return for the 2023/24 financial year only, or
2. Complete and submit two or more separate Annual Levy Return forms – one for the 2021/22 financial year, one for the 2022/23 financial year, and one for the 2023/24 financial year. 

Please note: In order to be allocated voting rights for the coming year, all levy paying Members must submit an Annual Levy Return for the 2023/24 financial year. 

Where an Annual Levy Return has not been received for either of the 2021/22 or 2022/23 financial year, the levies paid in that year will be treated as zero. This will reduce the number of votes allocated (see How are voting rights calculated? below). 

The horticultural products listed on the Annual Levy Return form are all of the products for which Hort Innovation received and managed levies collected by the Australian Government (or via a Producer Contribution arrangement) in the 2023/24 financial year. 

If you grow a horticultural product that is not listed: 

• You may not pay a levy on that product, or
• You may pay a levy, or other fee or financial contribution, received and managed by an organisation other than Hort Innovation, or
• The levy or Producer Contribution may not have been paid in the 2023/24 financial year.

For example: The ginger levy is received and managed by Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (trading as AgriFutures Australia), not Hort Innovation. 

More information about horticultural levies can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s website at www.agriculture.gov.au/agriculture-land/farm-food-drought/levies/rates#horticulture.

Statutory levies are required to be paid by all producers of the horticultural products listed on the Annual Levy Return form. This amount may have been deducted from payments that you received for your produce at a point in the supply chain, and then passed on to the Australian Government on your behalf. 

If you are unsure as to whether you have paid a levy, or the amount of levy you may have paid, more information about horticultural levies can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s website at www.agriculture.gov.au/agriculture-land/farm-food-drought/levies/rates#horticulture, including the rates of levy for each horticultural product.

Producer Contributions are amounts paid voluntarily by participants in the almond, blueberry, pistachio, pyrethrum and processing tomato industries to their relevant industry body – being Almond Board of Australia Inc, Australian Blueberry Growers’ Association Inc, Pistachio Growers Association Inc, Botanical Resources Australia Pty Ltd and Australian Tomato Research Council Inc respectively. These contributions are collected for the purpose of funding research and development services through Hort Innovation. The voluntary contributions made by participants in the almond industry are in addition to that industry’s statutory levy.

If you grow almonds, blueberries, pistachios or pyrethrum or are a processing tomato producer and are unsure as to whether you have paid a Producer Contribution, please contact the organisation listed above as applicable. 

No. If you only collect levies from others and then pay these funds to the Australian Government, you are not a ‘levy payer’ for the purpose of receiving voting rights. This activity is better referred to as levy aggregation. 

However, if you both collect levies from others and pay levies on your own behalf as a horticultural producer, you are a levy paying Member and eligible to submit an Annual Levy Return for only those levies you pay on your own behalf. 

Link Market Services (Link) is Hort Innovation’s Member Registry Partner, and is a global provider of share registry services as part of the Link Group.

Link has been engaged by Hort Innovation since 2015 to assist in management of the Annual Levy Return, voting verification, AGM and proxy voting services.

All Annual Levy Returns will be received and processed and voting rights calculated in accordance with the Hort Innovation Constitution. The Hort Innovation Company Secretary works closely with Link throughout the process. 

The Annual Levy Return must be received by 5pm AEST on Friday September 13, 2024.

Member information provided as part of the Annual Levy Return will be used as follows: 

• The amount of levy paid will be used for calculating the Member voting entitlement. This information will be stored by Link for use in future voting entitlement calculations and stored by Hort Innovation as part of any membership information collected.
• The horticultural products on which levies are paid and the levy amount may be recorded in our Member Register.
• We will update/correct Member information in the Hort Innovation Member Register (for example, ABN or contact details).

*Hort Innovation may conduct an audit of information provided in an Annual Levy Return, in compliance with its Constitution. In the event Hort Innovation engages a third party to perform this audit, this third party will be required to enter into a Confidentiality Agreement prior to being provided access to any Member information. 

Also see the Privacy Notice on the Annual Levy Return form.

Voting rights are calculated in accordance with Article 6.8(d) of the Hort Innovation Constitution. 

The calculation uses both ‘Annual Receipts’ (levy paid in the 2023/24 financial year) and ‘Average Receipts’ (average levy paid over the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years). 

A minimum of $200 in levy needs to have been paid in the 2023/24 financial year for the allocation of voting rights.

All Voting Members will be notified of their voting entitlement in October 2024.

The voting entitlement issued will remain current from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. 

Under the Hort Innovation Constitution, the Company may verify the levies declared by Members as part of their Annual Levy Return. To verify the amounts paid and understand if the correct voting entitlements have been granted, Hort Innovation conducts an audit.

The audit is run by a third party provider, Kelly+Partners. Because Hort Innovation does not have a Levy Payer Register, and has no knowledge of your levy receipts, the third party provider will ask for “evidence” to be sent to them in order to verify that the correct Member levy amounts have been declared. Evidence might include accounting receipts, Government receipts, bank documents evidencing transfers to a levy aggregator, or other similar material. The provider seeks to make the process as easy as possible, but it does involve some work on behalf of the Member.

Each year the Company uses a set criterion to select those Members to be audited. The audit shall focus on Members who have substantial changes in their voting entitlement, Members who claim the same amounts each year or those who have a large amount of votes. Of course, the business also applies a random element to the audit, so any Member could be chosen.

Because the requirement for an audit arises under the Company’s Constitution, Members must participate. The Company assists the Member as best as possible to make the audit as easy as possible, however, a blanket refusal to participate may see the Member not issued with any voting entitlement for that year. 

In circumstances where a Member does not participate in any year, they will automatically be chosen to participate in the audit in the following year. A Member who fails to comply with a notice to participate in the audit may be removed from the Member Register and allocated no votes for the applicable Voting Period.

If you have questions, you can contact the Hort Innovation Membership team:

Email - membership@horticulture.com.au

Phone - 02 8249 3709