August 1, 2013
by Anne Miller
Who cares if Goulburn Valley fruitgrowers are being forced to rip out and burn their orchards because of foreign imports? Well, not many people in Kingaroy, it seems, after a rally to support the plight of the Victorian town of Shepparton fell flat on Thursday morning.
Even the pull of country music star James Blundell (who is in top spot on the Senate ticket for Katter’s Australian Party) and a corps of KAP candidates – including the big man in the hat himself – failed to rouse enthusiasm.
southburnett.com.au carefully scanned the “crowd” who gathered to enjoy a hot breakfast of baked beans in the Town Hall Forecourt. After ignoring the media reps, KAP candidates and others wearing KAP shirts, we counted 11 people.
The rally had been organised by SPC forklift driver Lee Luvara who drove all the way from Shepparton to gather signatures for a petition to the Federal Government to provide emergency assistance to orchardists in the Goulburn Valley.
To be fair to Mr Luvara, 9:30am on a Thursday was probably not the best time to attract a crowd but his message to Kingaroy was urgent and simple … if SPC goes under, it will affect you, too.
SPC is the major purchaser of Australian navy beans, and Kingaroy is still proclaimed as the “navy bean capital” of Australia, even though the crop these days makes up a much smaller percentage of the product processed through Bean Growers Australia.
The campaign to “Toss A Tin In Your Trolley” to help save SPC began on Facebook by Shepparton resident Teena Knight whose brother is a third generation fruitgrower.
She met up with Mr Luvara, and their first rally was held in Shepparton on May 9 when about 1200 local residents banded together to call for help from the Federal Government.
Their “great green campaign” began to paint Shepparton green with “Support Australia, Buy Australian Grown Produce” stickers and posters.
Then followed a community delegation to Canberra on June 4, where Mr Luvara and others from Shepparton met with politicians from all parties.
Somewhere along the way, Mr Luvara became the KAP candidate for the Victorian seat of Indi at the next Federal Election.
He said today the problems for SPC were being caused by “crushing” export markets, overseas companies “dumping” product in Australia, imported fruit produced in conditions that would be illegal in Australia and “unclear” labelling that helped to disguise the fact that the product in the can was not grown in Australia.
“Australians aren’t afraid to fly their flag on their product so don’t you be, Mr Import,” he said.
He was also critical of government-imposed costs, “Why raise the bar so high that Aussies can’t jump over it but others can sneak under it?”, and the supermarket duopoly, “Down! Down! is their slogan on everything, even the growers of the Goulburn Valley”.
“To do nothing is not an option for our children and grandchildren.”
Letters to Kingaroy from Teena Knight and Mooroopna fruitgrower Peter Hall were read to the rally by James Blundell and former KAP candidate for Nanango, Carl Rackemann.
KAP founder and Member for Kennedy Bob Katter also addressed the gathering, saying that 50 per cent of SPC’s baked beans used to come from Canada, but because of Mr Luvara’s efforts 100 per cent would now come from the Kingaroy area.
Mr Luvara said he would have been happy if 150 people had shown up …
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After the rally, KAP candidate for Wide Bay Gordon Dale released a media statement in which he slammed the Federal Government for not protecting Australian industry and Australian jobs.
“Instead, South Africa, Chile, and the European Union are campaigning and lobbying against an emergency tariff that could protect an entire industry and potentially thousands of jobs,” he said.
“The lobbying countries and trade representatives are citing the possible downfall of the SPC Ardmona tinned fruit industry as ‘a local problem’ that has no bearing on possible tariffs.
“How is this possible that our government are even considering releasing the guillotine on its own people and industry?
“SPC are Australia’s last fruit processor and their baked beans are supplied by our own region here in Kingaroy. The loss of this iconic Australian producer would reverberate across the country and all tinned fruit would be wholly imported.”
- Related article: SPC Campaign Coming To Kingaroy
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UPDATE August 7, 2013: Lee Luvara has withdrawn as the KAP candidate for Indi
