Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For all of those who are listening to this great Australian parliament today—those in the gallery, those who might be listening on radio—let me remind you of the plight of SPCA, the last remaining, great Australian fruit and vegetable manufacturer, located in the Goulburn Valley and surrounded therefore by some of the best orchards you will find anywhere across the country. You might have imagined that their troubles were over, and that, with the massive response of more than the doubling of purchases of SPC Ardmona product, all would be well. But I have to say that we still need the support of the great Australian public. When they go into the big two supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles—who have such market power and who can squeeze the price on all their manufacturers—we need Australians to demand, to insist, that the Australian product is there on the shelves. It is not just the generic or home brands or some alternative, which will always be cheaper, because we still have this massive dumping of imported product coming into the country—Italian tomatoes, peaches and other fruit from South Africa and a lot of product from China. We, as Australians, deserve the best when it comes to our food: it must be clean and it must be properly grown in circumstances where the labour is treated ethically. I remind the Australian public that, please, when you reach for your foods in the supermarkets, buy Australian; and if you buy fruit, buy SPCA.