George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are midway through the sugar harvest in North Queensland and cane farmers are now planting without a contract. This is a highly risky exercise, because without a supply agreement with the local mill they have no certainty of ever being able to sell what they produce. Farmers are forced into this precarious position because the Singaporean miller, Wilmar, is unable or unwilling to come to an agreement with QSL for marketing the sugar. Wilmar is railroading farmers into a monopoly situation that the state specifically legislated to stop last year. The Queensland parliament passed a law to give farmers real choice in marketing, and Wilmar has done everything it can to avoid complying with that law. Farmer distrust of Wilmar is proving to be a very justified exercise, because they have deliberately stalled this process—for years now—so they can perpetuate their monopolistic power. This is not in the spirit of the Queensland legislation. It is not in the spirit of fair dealing. It is unconscionable and it is anti-competitive.

As the representative for the largest sugar-growing electorate in this country, I will not stand by and watch a foreign-owned miller flagrantly disregard the rule of Australian law. I call on Wilmar to reveal the unfair conditions they are using to sabotage negotiations and to urgently meet with QSL and the grower collectives, such as canegrowers, before they destroy an entire industry and the farming families who have worked so hard in Queensland to create that industry.

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