Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My grandmother would have described the situation with this sugar code as a butty mess. The whole drafting, implementation and now potential disallowance of this code has been mired in party politics. It's been the party politics of the Nationals versus One Nation versus doing deals to stop George Christensen crossing the floor in the other place. It has been a mess. But the people that have been hung out to dry during this mess are the farmers. They are the ones that have been used as political pawns in this political game playing.

As Greens, we have approached this by saying: 'Look, we don't want to get involved with the murky, messy politics of the Nationals and the Liberals and George Christensen and One Nation in Queensland. That's not what we want to be engaged with.' I understand the Labor Party have basically decided to support this disallowance because they knew that if this code was disallowed all that politics would flare up again and they would be poking the beehive and causing chaos, and that's what they wanted to do. But we decided, 'Look, let's just look at this from a very policy-focused point of view as to what is right.' We decided to go back to Greens principles. And this is a matter of fairness. It is about sugarcane growers versus the predatory behaviours of large, monopolistic corporations.

Yes, this code of conduct isn't perfect. Yes, it was developed, as I said, in that murky mire of politics. Yes, it was developed without a regulatory impact statement. It could have been done a lot better. But, ultimately, having this code with its flaws is much better than having no code at all. So the Greens will not be supporting Senator Leyonhjelm's disallowance of this code tonight, because we are standing up for farmers, against the predatory behaviours of those multinational corporations who, if this code was disallowed and no longer existed, would be able to keep on screwing down the screws and hanging cane growers out to dry.

Basically, this code is making sure that farmers have access to some protection, protection that they need in order to deal with their local monopolist. It is clear that if this disallowance got up—if we did not have a code of conduct—sugar millers would be able to further abuse their market power. They would be able to do things like pushing Australian cane growers to accept their terms on supply agreements, on marketing choice and on a host of other contractual matters. The code addresses the serious, perverse incentives that otherwise apply for millers to be able to maximise their margins at the expense of growers, which is what monopolies are able to do.

It is effectively a monopoly situation. If you're a cane grower, you don't have a choice as to who you are going to sell your sugar to. There is a massive market imbalance, and that's where you need governments to step in. You need governments to regulate, to level the playing field and give some power back to the growers who otherwise wouldn't have any. There is a very large market imbalance; without this code, sugar millers are able to continue negotiating right up to the day of harvest, knowing that unless a supply agreement is struck the cane growers are legally unable to sell their cane, because a supply agreement has to be in place for the sale to be legal. So there are very strong and necessary reasons that you have a code in place.

As I said, this code is far from perfect, but it's what we've got. It was introduced without the usual regulatory processes being followed. It was introduced without a regulatory impact statement; there was no formal industry consultation, and it was introduced with a speed that was set not by good process and good governance but by political necessity. That is not good policy practice. But it's here and it's better than nothing. So the Greens want to see this code continue to be in place. There is a review process that's going to occur over the next 12 months. We look forward to that review process and to being able to improve the code. We look forward to the consultation process that will occur as part of that review process, so that we can make sure that all sections of the industry, particularly the canegrowers, are able to get a good outcome that is in the interests of Australia overall.