Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 327 standing in my name for today relating to the Australian dairy industry, and the attendance of a minister.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

(1) That the Senate notes that—

(a) the number of registered Australian dairy farms has fallen from 5699 in July 2018 to 5200 at present;

(b) milk production has fallen from 12 billion litres in 2000 to 8 billion litres in 2019;

(c) dairy foods play an important part in Australia's food security and human health;

(d) none of the recommendations contained in the final report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Dairy Inquiry, dated April 2018, have been implemented;

(e) Australia is forecast to import more dairy products than it exports by 2023;

(f) four foreign-owned milk processors control an increasing proportion of milk production in Australia setting the price at the farm gate, and that during the period 2013 to 2017, these processors had revenues in Australia of over $160 billion but paid less than $160 million in income tax or a rate of less than 1%;

(g) the main dairy export countries, including New Zealand which is the largest dairy exporter in the world, have a regulated farm gate milk price;

(h) regulation of farm gate milk prices is correlated with growth in milk production and increasing exports, whereas Australia's export of dairy products has been in decline;

(i) on 11 November 2019, the Federal Government voted against the Protecting Australian Dairy Bill 2019; and

(j) on 2 December 2019, the Federal Government voted against debating the Saving Australian Dairy Bill 2019.

(2) That the Senate requires the Minister for Agriculture to attend the Senate on Thursday, 5 December 2019, at 3:30pm, to provide an explanation of no more than 10 minutes of the Government's plan to save the dairy industry from long-term decline.

(3) At the conclusion of the explanation, any senator may move to take note of the explanation.

(4) Any motion under paragraph (3) may be debated for no longer than 60 minutes, shall have precedence over all business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 10 minutes.

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens do not agree with every aspect of this motion. We've been speaking to farmers across the country and we know from them that it's a complex issue and there are a range of views. Some farmers oppose re-regulation and don't want a price floor and are concerned about competition from New Zealand. The Greens want to see an approach that addresses the varied needs of dairy farmers across the country rather than knee-jerk reactions to respond to a single subsector of the broader dairy industry. But we will support this motion because we don't want to see inaction. It's taken far too long for the coalition to address the price crash of 2016, and, as the motion correctly recognises, none of the recommendations of the ACCC report from 2018 have yet been implemented. The government needs to pull its socks up and start making things happen.

Question agreed to.