Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to thank Dale Hanks and Graham Manning, the two dairy farmers who gave evidence at the Senate inquiry into the dairy industry recently. These are two of the four farmers who were told by a milk company that their milk was no longer going to be required. In all my years as a dairy farmer in this nation, this is the first time I know of where this has happened to our dairy farmers. Graham Manning is one of a pioneering family of dairy farmers in Western Australia. Their family milked cows where the Mount Hospital now sits. Not only is he a pioneering fifth-generation dairy farmer; when we talk quality, his milk was in the top five per cent of milk quality in Australia for 14 years. And this is the person for whom there is no room in the WA dairy industry! As Graham said on the day, it was profoundly concerning for him that, when over 200 of his cows went 3½ hours further south, and further away from the processor, after he had done the milking at his dairy one morning, the processor accepted that same milk from another farmer that night; however, the milk from Graham Manning was not acceptable. I think Graham Manning for his great service to this industry.