Selling of vital farming supplies at inflated prices not illegal: Australian law
NSW’S Minister for Primary Industries has pledged to name and shame dodgy operators cashing in on the plight of desperate farmers being forced to pay exorbitant prices to keep animals alive.
NSW
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MOST would consider it morally wrong, but exploiting desperate farmers fighting drought isn’t wrong in the eyes of Australian law.
The Federal consumer watchdog has conceded hoarding desperately needed livestock feed to artificially hike prices is not illegal and there’s nothing it can do about it.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission businesses cannot collude on prices, but neither the Competition and Consumer Act or Australian Consumer Law can stop businesses from hiking up prices for something in high demand but in short supply.
“These laws do not prevent businesses from increasing prices,” an ACCC spokesman said.
So the ACCC has all but washed its hands of farmers being ripped off in the drought.
The competition regulator and “national consumer law champion” has a federal government mandate to monitor petrol prices but it doesn’t have a price monitoring role for the livestock feed industry, which is one of the reasons it won’t investigate.
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Hay that was worth $185 a tonne in March is now selling for $500 and last week, while pasturefeed supplement cottonseed has soared from $350 a tonne in May to more than $650 now, according to peak livestock bodies.
The response from the ACCC has incensed Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair.
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He has pledged to personally name and shame dodgy operators revealed to be cashing in on the plight of desperate farmers who are being forced to pay exorbitant prices to keep their livestock alive.
Mr Blair will today appoint former NSW Farmers President Derek Schoen as Drought Transport Subsidy Integrity Adviser to investigate reports of grain being stockpiled to artificially increase the price as well as transport companies jacking up prices to cash in on recently-announced freight subsidies meant for farmers.
The freight subsidies pays fodder and water transport bills up to $20,000 per farmer and are part of the state government’s $500 million emergency drought relief package.
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The ACCC and Fair Trading NSW have ignored reports of collusion and price-fixing, according to Mr Blair.
“If the ACCC isn’t interested in people taking advantage of farmers, bugger them, we’ll do it ourselves,” he said.
“Every dollar rorted is a dollar that doesn’t help a farmer and I won’t accept anyone gaming the system.”
Fair Trading NSW’s advice to overworked farmers was to sort out complaints themselves or lodge a written complaint.
“Fair Trading’s advice to customers who are dissatisfied in their dealings with any trader is to contact them and try to resolve the matter in the first instance,” a spokesman said.