Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter is headed to Colac in Victoria tomorrow to participate in a farmers debt summit where he will workshop resolutions for Australian farmers in crisis.

Led by the farmers collective “Farmer Power”, the meeting which is due to take place at 7pm tomorrow in Colac aims to propose resolutions to the crisis currently facing Australian farmers and will call for action to be taken to protect farmers.

Fresh off the back of the Merredin Agriculture in Crisis meeting in WA, Mr Katter will participate and provide his observations of the industry and will propose solutions relating to ensuring dairy farmers are paid a fair price for milk.

“This is unfinished business for us. We will continue to put pressure at both a state and federal level until we see that an arbitrated price for milk is returned to our dairy farmers.

“There were 21,000 dairy farmers in Australia, and now there are less than 7,000. My area had 240, and the last time I looked at the figures we had 42 left... and one of the towns up there has the highest suicide rate in Australia”, Mr Katter said.

Dairy industry advocate Shane Paulger who is one of the biggest dairy producers in Queensland will also attend the summit and will have a particular focus on the seriousness of rural debt throughout Victoria.

“Colac is situated in the heartland of dairying in Victoria.

“I believe that there are around 10,000 cows being held by the bank as a result of preeminent foreclosures on dairy producers.

“It’s imperative that this meeting shows a different way to secure the future of dairying”.

Mr Katter said that arbitration is desperately needed for both the working people of Australia as well as the dairy farmers themselves.

“In February we moved legislation to see an arbitrated price of milk for dairy farmers.

“The Australian consumer is put in a terrible position when they see the repercussion of buying milk at its current price, compared to the poor dairy farmers who have no rights at all.

“With an arbitrated price implemented today, we would see farmers being paid about 77c/L for fresh milk.

“In Australia, we believe in a fair go. These poor people are working for incomes that are at starvation and poverty level. It is just terribly cruel what is happening and hopefully this summit will provide some real solutions for these battlers”.

The rural debt summit starts at 7pm at the RSL Colac 21 Murray Street Colac.