Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk on dairy pricing, and I do so with a daughter of dairy farmers from Timboon in the gallery. She was a winner of one of the Heywire competitions. I congratulate her on that.

Western Victoria is Australia’s largest dairy producing region. The 1,500 dairy farmers in western Victoria currently produce nearly one-quarter of Australia’s total milk production. The dairy industry provides about 6,000 jobs in the region and accounts for about one-third of the region’s economic activity. A recent WestVic Dairy report has set a realistic target for growth in the industry from current levels of 2.1 billion litres up to three billion litres by 2020. The four main drivers of this growth will be increasing the herd size, establishing new farms, keeping farmers in the industry and increasing milk yields. The only way we can encourage this growth, or even sustain current production levels in the dairy industry, is to ensure that our farmers get a proper return. This will not happen if this discounting war continues. I call on both major supermarkets to stop this race to the bottom. Over time these unsustainable prices will lead to our farmers being paid less than the cost of production for their milk, and it will lead to many dairy farmers walking away from the industry. Forget about growth; it will end up reducing our farmers and the jobs they provide. (Time expired)