Dairy Industry

The same number of senators voted for and against a motion, which means it failed. It was introduced by Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson (One Nation).

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) in 2000, the dairy industry in Australia was deregulated, and since that time milk production has fallen from close to 12 billion litres a year to 8.8 billion litres a year, while the population has increased from 19 million to 25 million people,

(ii) milk production has fallen in every state in the past 12 months with the greatest decline in Queensland, followed by South Australia and New South Wales,

(iii) the number of dairy farms has declined in Queensland from around 1500 to about 380,

(iv) Queensland dairy herds are now in immediate danger through a failure of the winter and summer seasonal crops, and the shortage of quality feed means it is likely that whole herds will be sent to the slaughterhouse and families destroyed,

(v) the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) dairy inquiry report was handed down in April 2018, and found that an increase in the fresh milk price in supermarkets would not benefit dairy farmers, only the processors,

(vi) none of the eight recommendations in the ACCC’s report have been implemented by the Federal Government, including the Mandatory Code of Practice which means that farmers are still being forced into unfair and unconscionable contracts going forward for the next five years,

(vii) there is an immediate need to deal with the imbalance in bargaining power between dairy farmers and processors by legislating to make unfair contracts and, in particular, multi-year contracts (which bind farmers but not processors) unlawful because dairy farmers do not have the means to pursue these unfair contracts through the courts, and

(viii) the power imbalance between farmers and processors directly impacts farmgate milk prices; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

(i) provide immediate additional financial support to dairy farmers who cannot feed their herds,

(ii) implement all of the ACCC recommendations, and

(iii) task the ACCC to investigate how it can regulate the price of milk per litre paid by processors to dairy farmers to ensure a viable dairy industry.