Nationals Kill Dairy Rescue Bill
STATEMENT
Many may not be aware of events that occurred in the Senate today, November 11.
I put forward a private senator’s bill that, among other things, aimed to help safeguard the dairy industry by introducing a minimum farm gate price for milk to ensure dairy farming families in Australia could remain viable.
Unfortunately, the Bill was defeated by 31 to 30.
It was most telling that senators from the Liberal and National parties all voted against the Bill, which, in my view, proved to all of us that The Nationals are no longer “the party of the bush”.
As I said in my speech, the Government has been unable to explain to me how dairy farmers would be disadvantaged by the setting of a minimum farm gate price for milk.
In the lead up to today’s Senate debate, I made sure the Government was drawn to the fact that milk is being sold below the cost of water on supermarket shelves.
I also made clear that milk is being sold below the cost of production, and yet the government has kept sitting on its hands, as supermarkets Coles and Woolworths, together with a handful of milk processors, used their market power to control the supply chain and destroy dairy farms and rural Australia.
Our farmers have been systematically squeezed, tighter and tighter, as processors and retailers work together to reduce their profits to virtually nil while filling their own pockets and the pockets of their shareholders. This scenario has quite realistically been pushing Australia ever closer to dependence on imported milk.
The farmers have been dealing with this crushing attitude from their corporate customers, while also dealing with the ever-rising costs of production – fodder, water, electricity, council rates bills, fuel and more.
But the Bill was not just about helping dairy farmers. It was also about maintaining and growing the rural communities that support and depend on farms. It was about food security because we have a need to be self-sufficient in dairy products, including fresh milk.
It’s a poor reflection on the Government today that it was One Nation that has had to take the lead on this matter.
The Liberals and Nationals very clearly turned their backs on the people that they claim to represent, so the Bill was defeated.
I thank Labor, the Greens and Jacqui Lambie who put their political differences aside and supported the Bill.
Australia needs its farmers, and One Nation intends to continue giving them the support they need.
