Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

I will be raising this matter next week with the Food Processing Industry Strategy Group that we have established. I do not want to pre-empt the outcomes of the ACCC inquiry. But while that work proceeds, we are actively looking at measures that we can take to encourage fair practice. We have played this role before. You can see, for instance, what we are doing within the resources sector, where we have brought major project proponents together with local manufacturers to work out areas in which their interests align. We have opportunities to follow that same approach in the food manufacturing sector. We want to talk about a code of conduct. We want to talk about how we can harness the $150 million allocated to the food industry in the carbon price package. We want to talk to workers in the industry, and the AMWU is here at the moment to discuss these matters with a range of politicians. We want to talk about programs that can boost the performance of local firms. We want to talk about a supermarket ombudsman. (Time expired)