Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, the minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Again I refer the minister to the government’s broken promise to deliver a mandatory code of contact for the horticultural industry. Can the minister confirm that the then Deputy Prime Minister committed on 1 October 2004 that ‘a re-elected coalition government will impose a mandatory code of contact on the horticultural industry’? Hasn’t the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources now walked away from that commitment, with his statement on ABC radio this morning that: ‘The government’s understanding as part of the 2004 election commitments was that we would introduce a voluntary code of conduct’? Why has the government broken its promise to protect Australia’s 20,000 fruit and vegetable growers?