Media Release

Independent Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has announced he will draft legislation to provide, through a division of the arbitration commission, dairy farmers with collective bargaining rights in exactly the same way they’re available to five million other Australians whose wages are covered by awards.

“Both sides of politics will be exposed for the hypocrites they are if they don’t back this legislation,” said Mr Katter.

“The ALP won government on the right to collectively bargain through an arbitration commission (Fair Work Australia).

“The National Party, who pulled the trigger of deregulation that assassinated the dairy industry, are already arch‐hypocrites parading themselves as a farmers’ party… but they’re actually the anti‐farmers party, having deregulated everything up to the eyeballs.”

Mr Katter said when five or six thousand dairy farmers negotiate against two buyers controlling 85 per cent of Australia’s food market, “there would not be an economic book in world history that would not describe that as an oligopoly – anything but a free market”.

“When the dairy industry was deregulated on 1 July 2000, farmers’ incomes were cut on the day by more than 30 per cent, while the price to consumers within two years went up nearly 40 per cent,” he said.

“This great tragedy exposed the overwhelming number of parliamentarians who were rabid free traders, shamefully maybe even more in the Labor Party than in the Coalition.

“In light of what has happened in the dairy industry (described by the University of Qld’s Dean of Economics as one of Australia’s three great shames), I was justified recently in the House in calling the free marketeers loathsome hypocrites.

“This so‐called free market was a free kick ‘in the teeth’ for Australians, and the penalty was a free kick in front of the posts for supermarket chains ‐ the mainstream parties’ corporate cronies and who are no doubt the farmers’ avowed enemies.”