Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to bring to the attention of the parliament the three basic principles which saw me elected as a member of parliament: first, a reduction in the measures of compliance for the small business sector; second, putting more money into the pockets of mums and dads in my electorate; and, third, assuring my primary industry sector that I would fight for a better price for their product at the farm gate.

I come from the seat of Wright, which encompasses Lockyer Valley and the Fassifern Valley, which recently has been devastated by astronomical flood levels and out of proportion devastation. We still have families displaced from their homes, and they are doing everything humanly possible to get their lives back into some kind of routine, the routine that you and I in this House take for granted. My electorate is predominantly rural and the devastating infrastructure damage to my farming precinct was overwhelming, with farmers experiencing heartache. They took two and three metres of overburdened silt off their crops so that they would have a reasonable capacity to put in new crops. But they did. We are a resilient mob, a resilient people, in the electorate of Wright and we are doing everything humanly possible. But by jingo it is hard to get motivated when these hurdles are constantly put in front of us. I have 36 dairy farmers throughout my electorate. They are going through an incredibly tough time in trying to do their forecast with reference to capital investment programs in their industry sector, when there is so much indecision on the back of Wesfarmers and the Coles price-war situation. Wesfarmers own Coles. Wesfarmers built their business on the back of farmers. It is ironic that I stand in this House today to defend my farmers from the mechanism that Wesfarmers have built in the form of Coles. I will lobby and fight for my farmers from the dairy sector as best I can.

In Brisbane today Brian Tessmann, the President of the Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation, spoke at the Rural Press Club. He made reference to the supermarkets creating a situation of market failure, which does not reflect the current supply and demand situation or the true value and cost of fresh milk. He is saying that, as the market leaders on milk put pressure on generic brands, dairy farmers will leave the industry.

The situation in my electorate keeps on getting worse. It is like a Demtel ad in reverse. There is a set of steak knives with this as well. Twenty per cent of growers in my area produce all of Queensland's beetroot. On the weekend they were informed by Golden Circle, a full subsidiary of Heinz, that their product would no longer be wanted. I have in my hand a tin of sliced beetroot. Mr Deputy Speaker, I say to honourable members, through you: do yourselves a favour when you get out of here tonight and go and get yourselves one of these, because they are going to be a collectors' item in Australia. The contents of this product will no longer be made in the electorate of Wright or in Queensland or in Australia. You will be buying beetroot that is processed in New Zealand, possibly coming from China, Poland, Bulgaria—any of those countries that have a lower cost-efficiency in getting product into a tin. I can assure you that the product quality will not be anywhere as good as what we have in the Lockyer Valley.

Why are these firms leaving our shores? Why is Golden Circle in Queensland choosing to relocate to New Zealand, when our Prime Minister tells us, with her hand on her heart, that the carbon tax will not have an impact on this industry? (Time expired)