Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the private member’s motion on milk pricing that the member for Calare put before this House. I do so with the support of dairy farmers in my area and all associated with them, community leaders and many people who are not associated with the dairy industry at all but are concerned about the future of the dairy industry. We face a perplexing problem because we live with a deregulated dairy industry. It was deregulated well over a decade ago, so we do not have a lot of tools to talk about regulation and that is not the way it is going.

We are concerned about what is currently happening, particularly Coles’s behaviour. Some go so far as to say it is predatory pricing and we are looking at the issue of predatory pricing at the moment. People in my area are saying people like getting cheap milk because who does not want to go to the shop or supermarket and get something cheaper. We are always looking for a bargain. We all talk about cost of living pressures which are foremost in our minds and affect everybody. At the same time, we know that if what is happening is not sustainable for the dairy industry, it is not sustainable for any of us long term and therein lies the issue.

We want the ACCC to examine this issue so that we have all the facts before us. I do not profess to know all the facts. I know what I know. I have a dairy industry in my area. I know that the dairy industry is the third largest of the rural industries in Australia. I know what it means to my local economy. I know what it means to northern New South Wales and southeast Queensland which is close to where I live. And I know what it means to the industry at large.

It is within that context that I speak. I do not want this issue politicised and neither should it be by anybody. It is an issue of concern to the community, to the dairy farmers—to everybody. I want to be advised on it in a very open and transparent way, and I hope that the ACCC and the Senate Economics Committee’s inquiry into the impacts of supermarket price decisions on the dairy industry are able to reveal this. The Senate inquiry is supported by the government and I understand it is supported by all others. It is a Senate inquiry that has the ability to provide us with the facts and the transparency that we need so that we can make some informed decisions if we need to, or at least make some informed comment on it.

The issue is a concern, and it is something that is being talked about. I was asked by my local radio station today, ‘Janelle, if it is such cheap milk, why are you concerned?’ I said, ‘I have to be concerned about many things, and one is the long-term viability of the dairy industry.’ When it went through deregulation I saw gain by some, but I also saw the pain and I saw what that meant. We do not want an industry that is already feeling it—especially with some of the weather events that we have had—exposed any more.

One thing that I looked at today was Choice magazine. Choice did testing on milk and looked at different brands and so on, and they came up with some interesting findings on the milk. I would like to finish with two of the things they came up with. One was that Lite White and other reduced fat milks are more highly processed. I drink milk, but I like fat milk. I do not like skinny milk or any of those others.

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