Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

(—) (): Well, I think that is 101: fighting for farmers, not just dairy farmers but producers right across the country, in all different commodity groups, to get a fair price for their hard work and efforts producing clean, green food. You talk about deregulating and regulating the dairy industry. It was indeed the dairy farmers themselves who took that decision to deregulate the dairy industry across Australia, and we've been working through how that has shaken out over the past couple of decades. Yes, there have been issues, with market power being used by supermarkets in how they purchase product and the reward that they give our farmers. That is why we have committed to the development of a dairy code, in conjunction with dairy farmers, to ensure that they can have more assurance around a fair price for product. My department officials have visited all eight dairy regions, listening to the dairy industry about the development of the code, which will be announced in coming— (Time expired)