❓ The WA government is supporting the dairy industry's plan for a milk price negotiation agency by providing funding and market development support, but is hesitant to provide start-up funds, suggesting Dairy WA should fulfil that role.
AnsweredQoN 1113Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
What is the Government doing to help the dairy industry accomplish its plans for a milk price negotiation agency, and is the minister providing any advice that will help it through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission process and the requirements of the Trade Practices Act? Hon KIM CHANCE
AnswerView source ↗
I thank Hon Robyn McSweeney for what is a very timely question. As honourable members may generally be aware, the Western Australian Farmers Federation, which represents the majority of dairy farmers, has been working through a process with the dairy industry in an attempt to create a single negotiating group that can, under authorisation from the ACCC, use a collective bargaining process to negotiate with processors and, I hope ultimately, also retailers, although the effect of the Trade Practices Act currently prohibits that. That is why it is necessary to have an ACCC authorisation to allow that to happen. Before that can be done it is necessary for a group of dairy farmers to form a single negotiating group with support from the majority of producers within the industry. Without that as the starting point, the single negotiating group does not have any effective power. That group could be said to be analogous to the role of a trade union in a negotiating process. The WA Farmers Federation has sought indications from producers within the industry about their willingness to effectively sign on to that process and has been extremely successful in getting an indication from approximately 83 per cent of farmers that they would be willing to join that process. The Government is encouraged by that. The honourable member asked what the Government had done to assist in that process. It has provided funding for the process. It is providing market development support for the process. The funding has, in part, been used to provide legal advice from the farmers’ Sydney-based lawyer, Miss Jenny Mattila, to put the case together. The Western Australian Farmers Federation has come back to the Government at this stage seeking three things: first, further market development assistance, which it can provide from within its own resources at the Department of Agriculture; secondly, additional funding to effectively continue paying Miss Mattila’s bills; and, thirdly, start-up funds for the new business. What I have indicated to the Western Australian Farmers Federation is that the Government is more than happy to provide the first of those and that it will consider the second when the time becomes appropriate. However, I have baulked somewhat at the third, because although the first two are public interest matters, the third is close to a matter of private interest. I believe that the former Government, with support from this Government, has already allocated those funds in that the assets of the former Commonwealth Dairy Industry Authority have been transferred to Dairy WA for that specific purpose. Dairy WA has not done much with those funds up until now. That is a role for Dairy WA, but the Government will continue discussions between the Farmers Federation and Dairy WA towards that end.
Hon KIM CHANCE replied: I thank Hon Robyn McSweeney for what is a very timely question. As honourable members may generally be aware, the Western Australian Farmers Federation, which represents the majority of dairy farmers, has been working through a process with the dairy industry in an attempt to create a single negotiating group that can, under authorisation from the ACCC, use a collective bargaining process to negotiate with processors and, I hope ultimately, also retailers, although the effect of the Trade Practices Act currently prohibits that. That is why it is necessary to have an ACCC authorisation to allow that to happen. Before that can be done it is necessary for a group of dairy farmers to form a single negotiating group with support from the majority of producers within the industry. Without that as the starting point, the single negotiating group does not have any effective power. That group could be said to be analogous to the role of a trade union in a negotiating process. The WA Farmers Federation has sought indications from producers within the industry about their willingness to effectively sign on to that process and has been extremely successful in getting an indication from approximately 83 per cent of farmers that they would be willing to join that process. The Government is encouraged by that. The honourable member asked what the Government had done to assist in that process. It has provided funding for the process. It is providing market development support for the process. The funding has, in part, been used to provide legal advice from the farmers’ Sydney-based lawyer, Miss Jenny Mattila, to put the case together. The Western Australian Farmers Federation has come back to the Government at this stage seeking three things: first, further market development assistance, which it can provide from within its own resources at the Department of Agriculture; secondly, additional funding to effectively continue paying Miss Mattila’s bills; and, thirdly, start-up funds for the new business. What I have indicated to the Western Australian Farmers Federation is that the Government is more than happy to provide the first of those and that it will consider the second when the time becomes appropriate. However, I have baulked somewhat at the third, because although the first two are public interest matters, the third is close to a matter of private interest. I believe that the former Government, with support from this Government, has already allocated those funds in that the assets of the former Commonwealth Dairy Industry Authority have been transferred to Dairy WA for that specific purpose. Dairy WA has not done much with those funds up until now. That is a role for Dairy WA, but the Government will continue discussions between the Farmers Federation and Dairy WA towards that end.
I thank Hon Robyn McSweeney for what is a very timely question. As honourable members may generally be aware, the Western Australian Farmers Federation, which represents the majority of dairy farmers, has been working through a process with the dairy industry in an attempt to create a single negotiating group that can, under authorisation from the ACCC, use a collective bargaining process to negotiate with processors and, I hope ultimately, also retailers, although the effect of the Trade Practices Act currently prohibits that. That is why it is necessary to have an ACCC authorisation to allow that to happen. Before that can be done it is necessary for a group of dairy farmers to form a single negotiating group with support from the majority of producers within the industry. Without that as the starting point, the single negotiating group does not have any effective power. That group could be said to be analogous to the role of a trade union in a negotiating process. The WA Farmers Federation has sought indications from producers within the industry about their willingness to effectively sign on to that process and has been extremely successful in getting an indication from approximately 83 per cent of farmers that they would be willing to join that process. The Government is encouraged by that. The honourable member asked what the Government had done to assist in that process. It has provided funding for the process. It is providing market development support for the process. The funding has, in part, been used to provide legal advice from the farmers’ Sydney-based lawyer, Miss Jenny Mattila, to put the case together. The Western Australian Farmers Federation has come back to the Government at this stage seeking three things: first, further market development assistance, which it can provide from within its own resources at the Department of Agriculture; secondly, additional funding to effectively continue paying Miss Mattila’s bills; and, thirdly, start-up funds for the new business. What I have indicated to the Western Australian Farmers Federation is that the Government is more than happy to provide the first of those and that it will consider the second when the time becomes appropriate. However, I have baulked somewhat at the third, because although the first two are public interest matters, the third is close to a matter of private interest. I believe that the former Government, with support from this Government, has already allocated those funds in that the assets of the former Commonwealth Dairy Industry Authority have been transferred to Dairy WA for that specific purpose. Dairy WA has not done much with those funds up until now. That is a role for Dairy WA, but the Government will continue discussions between the Farmers Federation and Dairy WA towards that end.
Hon KIM CHANCE replied: I thank Hon Robyn McSweeney for what is a very timely question. As honourable members may generally be aware, the Western Australian Farmers Federation, which represents the majority of dairy farmers, has been working through a process with the dairy industry in an attempt to create a single negotiating group that can, under authorisation from the ACCC, use a collective bargaining process to negotiate with processors and, I hope ultimately, also retailers, although the effect of the Trade Practices Act currently prohibits that. That is why it is necessary to have an ACCC authorisation to allow that to happen. Before that can be done it is necessary for a group of dairy farmers to form a single negotiating group with support from the majority of producers within the industry. Without that as the starting point, the single negotiating group does not have any effective power. That group could be said to be analogous to the role of a trade union in a negotiating process. The WA Farmers Federation has sought indications from producers within the industry about their willingness to effectively sign on to that process and has been extremely successful in getting an indication from approximately 83 per cent of farmers that they would be willing to join that process. The Government is encouraged by that. The honourable member asked what the Government had done to assist in that process. It has provided funding for the process. It is providing market development support for the process. The funding has, in part, been used to provide legal advice from the farmers’ Sydney-based lawyer, Miss Jenny Mattila, to put the case together. The Western Australian Farmers Federation has come back to the Government at this stage seeking three things: first, further market development assistance, which it can provide from within its own resources at the Department of Agriculture; secondly, additional funding to effectively continue paying Miss Mattila’s bills; and, thirdly, start-up funds for the new business. What I have indicated to the Western Australian Farmers Federation is that the Government is more than happy to provide the first of those and that it will consider the second when the time becomes appropriate. However, I have baulked somewhat at the third, because although the first two are public interest matters, the third is close to a matter of private interest. I believe that the former Government, with support from this Government, has already allocated those funds in that the assets of the former Commonwealth Dairy Industry Authority have been transferred to Dairy WA for that specific purpose. Dairy WA has not done much with those funds up until now. That is a role for Dairy WA, but the Government will continue discussions between the Farmers Federation and Dairy WA towards that end.
I thank Hon Robyn McSweeney for what is a very timely question. As honourable members may generally be aware, the Western Australian Farmers Federation, which represents the majority of dairy farmers, has been working through a process with the dairy industry in an attempt to create a single negotiating group that can, under authorisation from the ACCC, use a collective bargaining process to negotiate with processors and, I hope ultimately, also retailers, although the effect of the Trade Practices Act currently prohibits that. That is why it is necessary to have an ACCC authorisation to allow that to happen. Before that can be done it is necessary for a group of dairy farmers to form a single negotiating group with support from the majority of producers within the industry. Without that as the starting point, the single negotiating group does not have any effective power. That group could be said to be analogous to the role of a trade union in a negotiating process. The WA Farmers Federation has sought indications from producers within the industry about their willingness to effectively sign on to that process and has been extremely successful in getting an indication from approximately 83 per cent of farmers that they would be willing to join that process. The Government is encouraged by that. The honourable member asked what the Government had done to assist in that process. It has provided funding for the process. It is providing market development support for the process. The funding has, in part, been used to provide legal advice from the farmers’ Sydney-based lawyer, Miss Jenny Mattila, to put the case together. The Western Australian Farmers Federation has come back to the Government at this stage seeking three things: first, further market development assistance, which it can provide from within its own resources at the Department of Agriculture; secondly, additional funding to effectively continue paying Miss Mattila’s bills; and, thirdly, start-up funds for the new business. What I have indicated to the Western Australian Farmers Federation is that the Government is more than happy to provide the first of those and that it will consider the second when the time becomes appropriate. However, I have baulked somewhat at the third, because although the first two are public interest matters, the third is close to a matter of private interest. I believe that the former Government, with support from this Government, has already allocated those funds in that the assets of the former Commonwealth Dairy Industry Authority have been transferred to Dairy WA for that specific purpose. Dairy WA has not done much with those funds up until now. That is a role for Dairy WA, but the Government will continue discussions between the Farmers Federation and Dairy WA towards that end.
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