Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the Productivity Commission's report on the safeguards inquiry into    the import of processed tomato products and also into the import of processed fruit products. I was talking about this issue last week, and it refers to SPC Ardmona, an iconic food-processing company and the last food processor of its type in our country. As I mentioned, safeguard measures are a legitimate method to ensure that our global trading agreements operate with integrity, and we should not shy away from using them—and this was a comment that Peter Harris, Chairman of the Productivity Commission, made to me in response to some questioning in Senate estimates a while ago.

Taking the hard line, and often the high road, on matters of international trade sometimes leaves Australia trailing behind our competitors, while the United States holds fast to its farm bill; Europe applies its common agricultural policy, despite the recent review; and relative newcomers to the WTO such as China, according to an OECD report, are increasing their subsidies. In the past four years, Australia's food-processing industry has taken a battering, which has seen over $800 million lost, 11 food processers close and 1,200 people lose their job. And it is not just the people losing their jobs; it is also the loss of knowledge, skills, capacity and critical mass that affects our industry moving forward.

The Nationals in government want to see local industry prosper and champion the benefits of local trade, and I do not think that these are mutually exclusive things or competing viewpoints in the public debate. Through the legitimate use of WTO sanctions such as safeguards, bilateral and multilateral agreements can provide an opportunity for our local industries to prosper. As we discuss the benefits of Australia being open for business, let us make sure there is stock on the shelves, staff behind the counter and someone manning the till.

As I mentioned in an earlier contribution, today SPC Ardmona came to Parliament House to speak with coalition senators and members who are interested in such matters about what they are doing and the great innovations that they have been creating. The IP that has created this very healthy, safe, fresh product—all of the great things about the produce out of the Goulburn Valley being packaged in an appropriate way for the modern consumer—shows that SPC Ardmona is not a processer that is stuck in the 1950s with outdated technology and little willingness to embrace the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century. It is creating new products. It has a really exciting plan for how to be a food manufacturer into the 21st century, despite its having to deal with the issues of high input costs, the high dollar and all the rest of the complex factors that have played into doing business in this country in recent years. According to Essential Economics, if SPC Ardmona closed, the Goulburn Valley would lose 2,000 jobs and $165 million a year from the economy, not to mention the devastation that would be wrought on growers that supply the factory and the workers within the wider community.

SPC has initiated a thus-far successful antidumping case against imported products, and the two major supermarkets have recently pledged to source 100 per cent Australian fruit for their tinned fruit products—which has been great. Another key part of SPC Ardmona's successful campaign has been their quite aggressive PR campaign to try and turn around some of the issues. Yes, importation of foreign product is affecting their bottom line and so are a number of other things. They have been really proactive in attacking the problem, making sure that Australian consumers understand the benefits of buying and eating our great local produce and are making a conscious decision, when they go into a supermarket, to put the Aussie fruit into their shopping trolley. SPC, their workers and the greater community of Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley have taken that challenge to the wider nation, and I congratulate them for it. I also congratulate this great Australian company on being progressive and hardworking in trying to deal with some of the challenges of being a food processor in the 21st century. I am excited by their plans and I hope that we all get behind them to ensure a sustainable future not just for the company but for the Goulburn Valley. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.