Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister consider the implementation of a minimum farmgate milk price to help our desperately struggling dairy farmers?

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is nothing more than a cruel hoax—a cruel hoax to dairy farmers that have been doing it tough. This should be above politics and cheap politicisation. In fact, the member for Hunter is not promising a minimum milk price. What he said was that he'd get the ACCC to investigate. Let me save the Australian taxpayer a couple of million dollars. The ACCC gave back a report that actually said that it shouldn't do that but we should have a dairy code of conduct—one which this government is putting in place and for which we are making sure there is a time line of transition, complemented by a market mechanism to allow growth like that which other commodities enjoy.

This is about ensuring that populist politics and the policies of One Nation are not adopted by the Labor Party. This reckless, cruel hoax to dairy farmers that are doing it tough is something I didn't think I would see. The last time that we had a floor price was for wool. And how did that work out? There ended up being a stockpile—an oversupply. And all economists say exactly the same thing. This is a perishable product. In fact, I remember the member for Hunter coming into this chamber and espousing the fact that it was a Labor minister that got rid of the floor price on wool. But now they've turned around and gone with the economic advice of One Nation. That is what the economic credentials of the Australian Labor Party have become—nothing more than a cruel hoax.