Perishable Agricultural Goods Inquiry: Senator Raff Ciccone calls for action
The competition watchdog lodged a report with government calling for new fair trading laws. And an opposition senator says federal cabinet must act now for the sake of our dairy farmers.
A COMPETITION watchdog report highlighting the power imbalance between farmers and big business needs to be acted upon by government, a Victorian senator says.
Released yesterday, the Perishable Agricultural Goods Inquiry found fresh food markets including dairy, horticulture, meat and eggs have “characteristics likely to lead to bargaining power imbalances.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which conducted the three-month review, has called for new fair trading laws to provide farmers a more even playing field in dealing with processors, wholesalers and supermarkets.
Victorian Labor senator Raff Ciccone said the Federal Government needed to act on the ACCC report to ensure primary producers, particularly dairy farmers, weren’t continued to be squeezed by corporate players.
“The report tells us what we already knew — there are significant power imbalances between processors and producers and this is having a very detrimental effect on our dairy farmers,” Senator Ciccone said.
“The report shows that there are significant concerns regarding harmful practices in the grocery supply chain generally and that significant reform is needed to address this.
“Like many other reports that have been given to this government before, rather than being acted upon, it will be put on the shelf and left to gather dust.
“Our dairy farmers deserve much better than that — they deserve a fair price for their milk.”
The release of the report came a day after dairy lobby leaders called for its release and a fortnight after the ACCC officially presented its findings to Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Mr Frydenberg acknowledged the release of the report in a statement yesterday, noting the ACCC had found examples of “one-sided contract practices, commercial retribution, inefficient allocation of risk and a lack of price transparency”.
The Treasurer and Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud are yet to outline when they will formally respond to the recommendations.
Senator Ciccone’s comments follow a report issued by Dairy Australia this week which revealed 11 per cent drop in the number of dairy farm licences in Victoria during the 2019-20 financial year.
The 11 per cent fall is also triple the long-term decline, which hovers around the four per cent mark due to retirement, property consolidation and farmers switching to other sectors.
“The Federal Coalition Government should ensure they provide certainty for the industry,” Senator Ciccone said.
“Instead, eight years since the Liberal-National Government won power in Canberra, dairy farmers have not seen meaningful action to support their industry, and as a result, we now see more than one in ten farmers leaving the industry (in Victoria).”
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