Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is not opposed to a mandatory code, but the current code of conduct is nothing more than a political fix. It was imposed on our sugar industry against their will. There was barely any consultation or assessment of the potential impacts on investment and jobs in the industry. We need to make sure that we get the balance right, bridge the disparity between canegrowers and millers and make sure that no single stakeholder has more power than the other. Any sugar code of conduct must ensure that canegrowers are confident that their livelihoods will be supported by the industry at large, that millers and other industry stakeholders have the capacity to better promote their products, and that there is greater competition in the industry. In particular, we need to ensure that millers are also working in the interest of hardworking canegrowers—the people who actually grow the product that they refine for sale to the rest of the community.

Labor believes that there is a case for a properly and responsibly developed code of conduct which addresses any of the market power imbalances between canegrowers and millers. The re-regulation of Queensland's sugar industry in December 2015 enables sugar canegrowers to direct how millers market sugar internationally. While canegrowers in Queensland were happy to see the changes go through, it looks like further issues have arisen since the re-regulation of the industry. Re-regulation of the sugar industry has restricted competition in the industry, reduced investment in milling capacity and reduced the incentive to promote further innovation in the industry.

Australia is part of a global economy, and our canegrowers are in the situation where they have to compete with other canegrowers from around the world, most notably from Brazil. We need to ensure that our canegrowers, millers and the industry as a whole are able to compete against countries like Brazil. In order for that to happen we need to make sure that the power imbalance between our canegrowers and millers is addressed. The current code of conduct does almost nothing to address this imbalance.

Labor supports further consultation and consideration of the implications that regulation would have on the sugar industry. Until adequate consultation is had and the views of various stakeholders are heard, we believe that the current code is not good enough and should be ripped up.