Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on the government's commitment to boost the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's engagement in the agricultural sector? And how will today's announcement of a dedicated commissioner help to strengthen competition in agricultural supply chains, both in my electorate of Page and across the nation?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Page for his question. The honourable member for Page has a very strong history and a very strong grounding in economics, being a person who was responsible for multiple billions of dollars at Colonial. He has also been a member on the Standing Committee on Economics, I believe, and has done a good job in that, especially in the investigation into domestic house prices regarding foreign investment.

What is also important is that the member for Page has had a strong involvement with cooperatives. One of the best cooperatives and one of the best examples is Norco in the member's electorate. In the last financial year Norco had an average price of over 57c a litre at the farm gate—an exceptional price that goes on the back of the work that we have been doing with free trade agreements and making sure that we drive those returns back through the farm gate.

What is also important is that people are treated fairly. Part of our white paper was to make sure that we had this dedicated commissioner. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Mr Mick Keogh, I believe, will do an excellent job at that. A person who is respected on both sides of the House, Mr Keogh OAM, with a staff of 12, will be able to make sure that people are treated fairly, especially in how they deal with the bigger retailers and bigger organisations.

We believe absolutely to our core in the capacity of the individual—whether on the farm or in business—to go through that economic and social stratification to go from the bottom to the top, especially within the prism of small business. We want to make sure that their opportunities are there by reason of their hard work and their entrepreneurship and that they not be limited by reason of a person knocking them out of the market because of their price or their product but just because the person knocking them out is bigger and is sometimes bullying them out of the marketplace.

I know that the member for Page is aware of this and understands and empathises with this, but this is an issue that you see so often in farming areas, whether in horticulture or so many areas of life and business in general, where people are always saying that we need to make sure that we have a government which is on our side to give some balance in the struggles and commerce that happen between the much larger operator and the smaller one. We also need to make sure that we have someone who understands the nuances and the peculiarities that exist within a certain industry that needs a particular type of knowledge and grounding in that industry, and we know that Mr Keogh is certainly a person who can do precisely that.

I welcome this and I welcome us landing yet another part of our agricultural white paper—something that talks to fairness, something that adds to the price at the farm gate, something that shows that we believe in the decency that mums and dads should be protected at the other end of the farm gate in the prices that they get. (Time expired)