Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm looking at Senator Cadell. There he is. There you go. They come here with dirt under their fingernails and actually know that this is not the real world in here. The real world is outside.

We've got this conundrum where there is an expectation that somehow a Senate inquiry will bring down prices, but the Senate inquiry is bombarded with the opposite effect: that people have got to start getting paid. We hear day in and day out about family farmers walking off the land. Correct me if I'm wrong, Senator Cadell. It's no different from our trucking industry. There are three- and four-generation trucking families just shutting shop. Think about that. We've heard of three and four generations, with the great-grandfather, grandfather, father and son, and the next generation is saying, 'Don't want it.' And then we start talking about food security.

So, with the greatest of respect to my colleague Senator McKim, for whom and for whose work I have huge respect, I cannot agree that divestiture will sort this out. If you marry up the argument I'm putting together with what we see in America and the UK, we know that these are not fantastic employers. It's bad enough that our farmers are getting the living daylights financially screwed out of them, but, when we go to those other corporate gorillas like Aldi and Costco—don't leave them out—that's how they operate. Not only will they screw their workers down; but profits are the biggest thing. I really struggle to see where we're going to go with this.

I also know we've got former minister Craig Emerson heading up his inquiry. We've had the ACCC. We know something has to be done. What is that magic bullet? I'm looking for it. I hope it comes out. What we really want to know is: do the corporates like Coles and Woolies make that much of a profit that they can actually do the right thing and pass that profit back down the chain to the suppliers? I'd like to think that is the case. I don't know. We'll be asking Coles and Woolies that. But what if Coles and Woolworths come out and their profit isn't that huge? What conundrum does that lead us to while we're screaming about looking after our suppliers, our horticulture and agriculture industry. That ain't going to bring prices down.

Without being the bearer of bad news: it's not new to those of us on the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee. I sincerely stand here saying with my hand on my heart that I've been out there supporting the agriculture industry for nearly 19 years in this building and I'll continue to do it, but, by crikey, they need help, and the National Farmers Federation ain't the answer.

Hopefully, the state organisations might be able to do something, but they should take a leaf out of the road transport industry's book. The agriculture industry will say, 'Oh, we're diverse.' Yes, they are. There are many, many cogs to their wheel. So is the road transport industry. The road transport industry has 47 sectors. Think about that. I can name about 12 or 13 before I start getting wobbly and have to really start thinking hard. So we're not much different than the agriculture industry, but the road transport industry got its act together. The road transport industry united around this nation to say that enough was enough. Think about everything that gets onto the shelves: our meat, eggs, dairy, fresh fruit and vegies. They don't get there on the back of a horse; they get there on the back of a truck.

The road transport industry and the agriculture industry are intertwined with each other. The road transport industry starts off everything for the agriculture industry. We bring in the seed, the fuel, the machines and the fertiliser. The farmers do what they do fantastically and then we get there, the low loader or the tipper is gone and now it's on the back of a tautliner or a fridge. We are intertwined. If the road transport industry could get its act together to stand up and say, 'Enough is enough,' this is what the farming industry needs to do. And they need to find a new guru, because it ain't the NFF. To those who blindly think the NFF speaks for the farming industry, I'll throw the challenge out: the NFF have got no cred. They can't come into any inquiry and start crying and moaning about their members getting screwed down while they're supposed to be the gurus.

I certainly hope that puts another angle on the argument. I, for one, believe the prices that we're being charged in the supermarkets are horrific. There is no argument about that. How do we fix that? I thought I would throw in another layer of confusion and another layer of challenges. At the end of the day, Senator McKim, you are definitely right on one thing. The gorillas are making money: let's make no mistake about that. How much money they're making is what I would love to know, but I just don't want to leave any queries out there. We've got some big problems in this nation, and it's very, very easy for people, when they're getting screwed down, to want to screw down other industries. This is what I've heard all the way along: 'We're not making money, so you can't make money.' No, no, no. Flip that around and start thinking about it. With productivity in this nation, we can bring prices down, I can tell you, and it starts with the road transport industry.