Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) calls on the Government to provide for agricultural security in Australia particularly given recent dramatic increases in the cost of production as a result of dislocations in imports and Australia continuing to be a net importer of fruit and vegetables and:

(a) food and manufacturing labelling that highlights hidden imports and prevents fraud;

(b) fresh produce labelling system that indicates the farm gate price (and the supermarket mark up);

(c) 'divesture' legislation that reduces the market power of the corporations that operate the major supermarkets. With the objective of levelling the playing field providing a competitive marketplace for consumers and suppliers;

(d) a National Office of Better Agricultural Regulation with powers to reduce red tape and consider the actual cost of implementing both marketplace regulations (ie. Freshcare, HARPS, Fair Farms), and government regulations (ie. PALM Scheme, reef regulation, water, conservation and protection);

(e) investment in infrastructure and critical supplies/support industries to reduce production and transportation costs (ie. gas prices for fertiliser, chemical, fuel, worker access);

(f) reforming the PALM scheme to ensure farmers have direct access to the program.

I don't think there's anyone in this place who has not mentioned the phrase 'affordable living' in the last four or five months. On a personal note, my wife was away and so I went down the supermarket. I didn't have to buy any meat—there was plenty of that in the fridge—and I spent $363. I nearly died of shock! I have Venetian ancestors. They invented money, and I've had a very great attachment to it throughout my life.

In 1990, the average household in Australia spent $92 a week on food. They're now having to spend $279 a week on food. That is a 2020 figure and there has been a huge escalation in food prices in the last two years. That's a 229 per cent increase in the price of food. The average weekly earnings have gone up only 150 per cent. So the average weekly earner is being short-changed by 80 bucks a week. The CPI, which pensions are attached to, has gone up by 110 per cent. So food's gone up by 230 per cent, but average weekly earnings have only gone up by 150 per cent and the pension has gone up by only 110 per cent.

Now, on a basket of key items that we took—and I must emphasise that we did not get a full basket—the mark-up in Woolworths and Coles 20 years ago was 106 per cent. The average mark-up now is 242 per cent. There have been 15 inquiries into Woolworths and Coles in this place and not a single thing has been done; not a single recommendation has been put into practice.

In 1991, Woolworths and Coles held 50.5 per cent of the market; that's all. When a really searching inquiry was done in 2001, their percentage of the market was, according to the ABS, 68 per cent and, according to global world ANOP, 72 per cent. They'd gone from 50 per cent to over 70 per cent in the space of 10 years. There's no doubt that they're up around 90 per cent now. So we have a duopoly. When I went to university and did economics they said that it was very, very bad to have a duopoly. I'll say it's bad. Woolworths and Coles can give themselves a 229 per cent pay increase, whilst the poor struggling pensioner got only a 110 per cent increase in the money that he receives. And I find that the CEO of Woolworths is struggling along on $8 million a year and the CEO of Coles is struggling along on $7½ million a year. I feel so sorry for them!

In the same period of time, there were 16,000 dairy farmers; there are now 6,000. We had 2½ thousand in Queensland. We now have about 400 in Queensland and, as you yourself are well aware, Madam Deputy Speaker Sharkie, many of them exited in the most terrible of ways. The highest suicide rate in Australia was recorded in the heart of the Atherton Tablelands, the densest dairying area in Australia.

There was a most infamous statement by John Anderson, leader of the National Party. He said: 'We have 240,000 farmers in Australia and we only need 130,000.' I went up to a Rural Action meeting three days later and they kicked my head in—I was still a member of the National Party then—and so I should have had my head kicked in. I asked them to vote for this bloke. They said, 'What's he up to—advocating that we get rid of 100,000 farmers!' Well, now we have 83,000 farmers, and whose fault is that? Throughout those years, what was the government that introduced free markets into every one of these things? A free market meant Woolworths and Coles had a free-fire zone to push us down through the floor. They could pay us anything they wanted to pay us— (Time expired)

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