Media Release

KAP Leader for Kennedy, Bob Katter wants legislation introduced to restore bargaining power to Australia’s dairy farmers.

Murray Goulburn and Fonterra have destroyed the livelihood of thousands of dairy farmers. The price slash was one thing but the retrospective application of debt, resulting in milk profit of 1c per liter for the dairy farmer – is too much to endure.

“Milk is cheaper than water, how could milk POSSIBLY be cheaper than water? It is because the dairy farmer has NO bargaining power at all. The giant purchasers and supermarket chains can pay whatever they feel like paying. If they’re using it a loss leader so they get more business in the door this is quite literally over the dead bodies of the farmers.

Once again we need an aggressive return to an arbitrated price. We’ve got it through for the sugar farmers in Qld and there’s no reason why we can’t get it through for the dairy farmers,” said Mr Katter.

In response to the current crisis, welfare, loans and counselling are being offered by the Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce but he has done nothing to restore to the dairy industry a viable and sustainable future.

“Barnaby in the Nationals has got the balance of power and he has done nothing except give platitudes and negligible handouts, which is not to help the farmers, but to buy him his way through the election,” said Mr Katter.

Mr Katter believes the 20c per liter “fight-fund” for farmers from a big supermarket operator is pure hypocrisy:

“It wasn’t in the too distant past the big supermarket operators did in a “race-to-the-bottom-auction” that drove the price of farmer’s milk down and made every single dairy farmer in Australia work at a loss. In NSW and QLD 30 per cent of our income was taken off us overnight. The net result in dairy areas such as the Atherton Tablelands in my electorate was a 1500 job loss. For these people now to be offering a 20c a liter farmer’s fight fund…it would make any person sick.

I don’t blame the giant supermarkets, I blame the Barnaby Joyce’s of this world who knew what deregulation would do to us and are not prepared to stand up with his balance of power in cabinet to stop it. KAP didn’t have the balance of power in Qld and we got arbitration through for the sugar industry, we did it with two members of parliament.”

Mr Katter says KAP will introduce arbitration legislation for the dairy industry,

“The dairy industry has suffered for the last 20 years. We can’t look after the Victorian dairy farmers. But in Qld, KAP remain confident we can do for the dairy farmers what we did for the sugar farmers, and that legislation will be going forward very shortly.”