December 1, 2017
Queensland dairy farmers have slammed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s interim Dairy Inquiry report, saying it will do nothing to address the issues affecting the Queensland industry.
Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation (QDO) president Brian Tessmann said the report, which was released on Thursday, lacked direction and would fail to fix the mess threatening Queensland dairy farmers.
“While the report acknowledges the major issue affecting our industry, the fact that farmers are carrying the overwhelming burden of risk in the supply chain, it offers nothing in the way of solutions or recommendations to fix it,” he said.
“QDO welcome the recommendation for a mandatory Dairy Code of Conduct, however this will not directly address the biggest issue in Queensland, the impact retail prices are having on farm gate earnings.
“It is clear that the original intent of the report has been lost on the ACCC with the interim report failing to address the systemic market failures crippling the viability of the Queensland dairy industry.
“(After) a year of apparent ‘listening’ to dairy farmers, the best the ACCC can offer are toothless recommendations that simply rearrange the deck chairs without addressing the crux of the issue, the blatant market failure stemming from the supermarket duopoly.
“If our politicians are serious about supporting the Queensland dairy industry they will redirect the ACCC to pull their socks up and deliver upon the clear political and community expectations the dairy inquiry was originally set up to do.
“It’s time for the ACCC to go back to the drawing board and deliver something that will actually help struggling Queensland dairy farmers.”
Mr Tessmann said that since the major supermarkets’ $1 milk campaign began in 2011, more than $200 million a year had been stripped out of the Queensland dairy supply chain resulting in more than 180 dairy farmers leaving the industry.
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Member for Flynn Ken O’Dowd said “listening” to dairy farmers was one thing, but they needed solutions to their issues.
“The current dairy pricing system is completed outdated and favours the large, dominant supermarkets with farmers forced to carry the risk in the current supply chain,” Mr O’Dowd said.
“Our farmers are fed up being milked by the outdated system. What our dairy farmers need are solutions. Solutions that fix the market failure to protect our dairy farmers getting milked by the supermarket duopoly.
“I’ll be fighting to see the mandatory Code of Conduct be given the strength to give our dairy farmers a fairer deal and better returns from their farm gate prices.”
- The ACCC interim Dairy Inquiry report can be downloaded here (3.6Mb PDF)
