Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take the member for Kennedy's interjection. He asks: what are we going to do about it? Well, I say that we actually already have very strong laws under Australian competition law, to prevent and prohibit misleading or deceptive conduct. I am very pleased to learn that the ACCC is investigating what I say are misleading claims that were made by Murray Goulburn. They misled farmers. They misled the market. And I am extremely pleased to learn that, not only is there an inquiry into the dairy industry across the board, looking at a whole range of issues, but also the ACCC is specifically investigating the conduct of Murray Goulburn and the way in which it clawed back that money from farmers, because it was an absolute disgrace. So I am very hopeful that this actually is a contravention of our law. We have very strong laws in this country to prohibit companies from misleading and deceiving; we have very strong laws to prevent that, whether it is farmers or consumers or small businesses being ripped off because of the deceptive conduct of others. And I am very hopeful that the ACCC will find that Murray Goulburn, at the very least, engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct, and my view is that there should be penalties applied to Murray Goulburn whereby Murray Goulburn is required to pay back the money that they improperly took from our farmers. I am very proud to stand up for our farmers. I commend this bill to the House. And we will keep on fighting for our wonderful farmers.

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