Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says cut price $1 a litre supermarket milk must end

DEPUTY PM Barnaby Joyce wants supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles to rethink their $1 milk sales strategy, calling it a “form of exploitation”.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Barnaby Joyce has been calling for cheap milk to end. Picture: AAP

THE days of $1 milk must come to an end for the sake of Australia’s dairy industry, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has declared.

Speaking after a meeting with key dairy industry stakeholders, the Agriculture Minister said he wanted big supermarkets to increase their milk prices.

“I’ve had a discussion with Woolworths; I will have a further discussion with Coles,” he told reporters. “I’m being completely open here.

“The days of $1 a litre milk have got to finish because it sends all the wrong messages.

“And even the consumers now, go into your shop, the consumers are turning off it, because they are saying all I’m doing is buying a form of exploitation. I’m happy to pay an extra 50 cents, 60 cents, I don’t need some farmer working for $5 an hour.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Barnaby Joyce arrives at a dairy symposium in Melbourne. Picture: AAP

Mr Joyce said the $1 price tag was “not the proper reflection on what the price of labour is for people on the land who work for a living.”

He also announced an expanded Australian Competition and Consumer Commission probe into the nation’s dairy industry.

He said Treasurer Scott Morrison would ask the watchdog to launch an full inquiry under Part VIIA of the Competition and Consumer Act — starting in November.

“An in-depth and independent inquiry is a thorough and fair way to uncover inefficiencies and inequities that our farmers face — and identify a way forward,” he said in a statement.

Consumers have got behind a social media campaign calling on shoppers to boycott supermarket-brand milk in favour of farmer-branded milk.

“I encourage everyone in the dairy industry to contribute to the inquiry — there will be confidentiality arrangements in place to ensure the ACCC gets the information it needs while protecting commercial interests.”

Mr Joyce said the ACCC was expected to report back late next year.

He described the meeting of farmer organisations, processors and retailers as “courteous”.

“People asked serious questions about certain sections of the operation,” he said.

“Murray Goulburn were given their piece and were treated courteously. People heard them out.

“There was no jeering or yelling or screaming.

“Everybody at Woolworths had their say and were courteously heard.”

Barnaby Joyce says consumers are being given the wrong message by supermarkets that offer $1 milk. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Last week Mr Joyce and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull met with the board of Murray Goulburn, amid fears the industry crisis is deepening.

But he said he was confident Australia’s dairy industry would find a way forward.

“If I or anybody else said we had a systemic problem and that basically the industry is going to

finish then we’d be down here talking about exit packages and I’m not,” he said.