Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

As I mentioned in my answer to the first question, the government has been listening to the dairy sector. It has held a number of meetings with dairy farmers and the industry over the past few months. The Deputy Prime Minister met with Australian Dairy Farmers and the president of United Dairyfarmers of Victoria a few months ago, and I welcome and thank the dairy industry's continuing consultation and ability to engage in these matters. That meeting informed the construction of the dairy assistance support package. We listened to dairy farmers, and those proposals were based on those requests.

Since the election, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister have met with Murray Goulburn and Fonterra to ask their companies what they are doing to help suppliers. Last week the Deputy Prime Minister held a symposium in Melbourne with the dairy farmers to facilitate discussions and provide additional support. We continue to engage with the sector. It is an incredibly important sector for our economy, and we will do all we can to support it.