Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the government's announcement that we are going to implement a food and grocery code of conduct to ensure fair and transparent commercial dealings between suppliers and retailers. This is great news for our local farmers and producers, and it comes only a week after we said that we would do country-of-origin food labelling. Under this new code, the consumer watchdog, the ACCC, will be able to take action against any retailer or wholesaler who breaches the code. It covers contractual dealings such as supplier-funded promotions, labelling, shelf space and positioning, intellectual property and payments for wastage—and that is an interesting one because you can have the issue where you have supplied one of the big supermarket chains product and if that product is damaged after it arrives at the supermarket, depending on the contract there is a question about who pays for that damage. This code of conduct is going to make that much clearer and much fairer. It will ensure that relationships between retailers and suppliers are built on good faith and will help them work together to achieve the positive outcomes for the health and vitality of our grocery sector, and is very much for the good of Australian consumers. The code applies to retailers and wholesalers, and features an obligation to enter into these agreements in writing. There are minimum standards of behaviour. There are dispute resolution mechanisms and the ACCC will enforce compliance within the code.