Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to conclude the debate on the Grape and Wine Legislation Amendment (Australian Grape and Wine Authority) Bill 2013 and cognate legislation. The government is continuing to work to progress the merger of two statutory corporations—the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation and the Wine Australia Corporation. The merger of the two corporations will create a single whole of industry statutory authority—the Australian Grape and Wine Authority. The new authority will offer strategic benefits to the industry, such as improved leadership, service delivery and administrative efficiency. It will also enable a single board to make strategic links between research and development, investment initiatives and marketing. There will not be any changes made to the structure or amount of industry levies.

The legislation provides that all levies collected for a particular purpose, such as research and development, will only be used for that purpose by the new authority. There will also not be any changes to the existing regulatory, marketing and compliance roles of the Wine Australia Corporation under the new authority. The decision to implement the merger followed an industry proposal submitted in August 2012 by the two industry peak bodies: Wine Grape Growers Australia and the Winemakers Federation of Australia. The merger has widespread industry support and addresses discussions that have been raised over the last 20 years. Three bills have been presented for introduction—the Grape and Wine Legislation Amendment (Australian Grape and Wine Authority) Bill 2013, the Primary Industries (Customs) Charges Amendment (Australian Grape and Wine Authority) Bill 2013 and the Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Amendment (Australian Grape and Wine Authority) Bill 2013—and these bills provide the mechanism to create the Australian Grape and Wine Authority and implement the key elements of the reform.

I concur with the comments of my colleagues that what the wine industry does is allow those who have the work ethic to find themselves a small area of land and, if they work very hard, grow five or 10 acres of grapes—and, if they have a product that suits the palate, all other things being equal, it should sell and they should be able to make some money out of it. The only thing that can stand in their way is that they cannot market their product. If the marketplace has impediments, that means that, past the cellar door, the product has little hope of surviving.

I have been made aware of this by some colleagues in South Australia, who talk of excellent wines that one day they found were no longer on the shelves. The problem is that it is not the quality of the product that matters but the capacity to market the product. I am happy that the coalition has moved to a root and branch review of the Competition and Consumer Act, formerly known as the Trade Practices Act. There are a number of sections that are obviously very pertinent to this. One would have been—and I am sure that the members here are aware of it—what was otherwise known as section 51AC. It is now section 22 under the new Competition and Consumer Act. That section is about unconscionable conduct. We have to make sure that those in Australia who want to get ahead and who put their shoulder to the wheel and forfeit their role working for somebody else to set up their own business do not do so for no purpose such that there is no chance of ever receiving any benefit from what they do because they cannot sell the product.

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