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

I don't need any reminding. We're keen to get that mandatory draft code of conduct that we promised at the election in place as soon as possible. To that end, we have consulted on an exposure draft with the dairy industry over the past four weeks. We are keen on making sure we restore the bargaining power to dairy farmers when they are in contract negotiations with processors.

The mandatory code of conduct, everyone in this chamber will be rapt to hear, is on track to be in place by 1 January 2020. Rather than a watered-down code, this code will improve contractual arrangements between dairy farmers and their processors, help rebalance the bargaining power and improve the transparency of transactions. The code was a key recommendation, as I said, of the ACCC report. We had done consultations prior to the federal election; we've consulted on the exposure draft post-election. We are now working with the industry to ensure that this is a code that actually delivers for each of the eight very unique dairy industries. As I've said, what works in WA or Queensland, won't work in Tasmania. (Time expired)