{"id":252442,"date":"2020-02-10T14:24:37","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T04:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=252442"},"modified":"2020-07-31T10:41:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T00:41:37","slug":"dairy-closure-a-disgrace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/02\/10\/dairy-closure-a-disgrace\/","title":{"rendered":"Dairy Closure ‘A Disgrace’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Member for Gympie and Shadow Agriculture Minister Tony Perrett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

February 10, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

The State Opposition has again called for the State Government to review its decision to award a Queensland Health dairy supply contract to Lactalis.<\/p>\n

This follows the announcement last week the French-owned company is closing its Rockhampton factory.<\/p>\n

LNP Shadow Agriculture Minister and Member for Gympie Tony Perrett said the decision to close the factory was “a disgrace”.<\/p>\n

“The Palaszczuk Labor Government should never have awarded the contract in the first place to Lactalis over the 100 per cent Queensland-owned and operated Maleny Dairies,” Mr Perrett said.<\/p>\n

“Labor\u2019s \u2018Buy Queensland\u2019 policy is meant to give preference to local businesses in the regions when government contracts are awarded.<\/p>\n

“Why wasn\u2019t due diligence undertaken to ensure Lactalis would not close its Rockhampton milk factory and sack its 47 workers only three weeks after it pocketed the lucrative government contract?<\/p>\n

“The closure of the Rockhampton factory is a massive blow to Queensland\u2019s dairy industry and means more milk and dairy products from other States and overseas will be sold in our State.<\/p>\n

“To make matters worse, Labor has repeatedly refused to overturn its flawed decision to award the contract to Lactalis.”<\/p>\n

However, the Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation has described the closure of the Rockhampton factory as “inevitable”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Queensland\u2019s declining milk production over the last decade meant the closure of the Rockhampton plant was inevitable,” QDO president and Lactalis supplier Brian Tessmann said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“While this certainly will be a devastating blow to those employed at the Rockhampton plant, the closure should not affect the dairy farmers currently supplying to Lactalis.<\/p>\n

“Production into the Rockhampton factory has been sporadic for a while now.<\/p>\n

“Milk produced in the Central Queensland region for Lactalis will simply be transported down and processed in either the Nambour or South Brisbane factories.<\/p>\n

“Only farms around Biggenden and to the north have had their milk going regularly to Rocky.”<\/p>\n

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