Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator McCarthy, and thank you on behalf of all the dairy farmers in the Northern Territory for your sudden interest in the dairy industry. We, on this side of the Senate, have long stood with our dairy farmers and our dairy industry to seek to assure that they have a sustainable and profitable future and that future generations of Australians can enjoy safe, nutritious dairy products produced right here in Australia. And it is why, at the last election, we committed to introduce a mandatory code of conduct on the back of the egregious behaviour of the milk processors against our dairy farmers, following the step-downs and clawbacks by Murray Goulburn and Fonterra back in 2015.

In 2016, the ACCC inquiry we conducted actually recommended the mandatory code, and we're fulfilling that. Along with our commitment around the mandatory code, we also have $22 million worth of initiatives—everything from improving financial and legal literacy of our dairy farmers, their energy efficiency, support for—