Senate debates

Wednesday, 17 June 2020

Adjournment

Potato Industry

7:27 pm

Photo of Anne UrquhartAnne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Many of you in this place and many people on the north-west coast of Tasmania, where I live, will know potato processing gave me a start in employment that lasted for over 10 years of my working life. The extraordinary soils of the north-west and the near-perfect growing climate, plus the hard yards worked by hundreds of farmers, produce great potatoes. Thousands of people rely on the potato industry for their livelihoods. They have done so for nearly 200 years.

In 1826 the Van Diemen's Land Company sent the first shipload of potatoes from north-west Tasmania to Sydney. Today that industry supports the lives and families of around 320 employees at Simplot's Ulverstone potato-processing plant, around 200 employees at McCain's Smithton plant and more than 165 local growers that supply more than 300,000 tonnes of potatoes each year to the Simplot plant alone. McCain have another large plant in Ballarat that employs over 500 people. Of course, there are also all the associated indirect jobs in transport, logistics and shipping. These plants process potatoes into a variety of frozen products, value-adding enormously to the raw product. They are typical of highly productive regional industries that provide a substantial number of jobs vital to regional economies—vital to the lives, wellbeing and happiness of literally thousands of people. It's an industry that I'm passionate about and it's the kind of industry we need more of if we're to have jobs and opportunities in regional Australia.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of the importance of our manufacturing industries—industries we need to nurture and invest in to ensure that we have the resources as a nation to provide for our population and to feed them. The pandemic has also thrown industries around the world into crisis, with restaurants and food outlets closing down for months and no longer buying product, creating mountains of surplus food. Tasmanian potato growers and workers at our vegetable-processing plants are rightly stressed about the fluctuation in global commodity prices caused by the coronavirus. And, recently, the farmers and workers in the potato industry in north-west Tasmania and Ballarat became deeply concerned that a $1 billion COVID-19 assistance package to European potato farmers could see large quantities of cheap french fries dumped on Australian supermarket shelves.

I completely understand the fear and anxiety that these workers and farmers experience over this issue. This fear caused farmers and workers to rally recently, along with the community, at a socially distant rally in Smithton and Ballarat organised by the AMWU, my union. They were unusual events, with many people showing up in their cars and cheering through their car window so they could stay COVID safe. In Smithton I told those workers and farmers I would take their concerns to this place and make sure my colleagues here understand their anxiety. This industry is vital for employment and the economy on the north-west coast of Tasmania, an area hit hard by COVID-19 and already doing it tough before the pandemic. We are talking about the livelihoods of hundreds of people.

In response, Labor has called on the government to ensure that no worker and no industry gets left behind in the wake of the virus restrictions, which have had a severe impact on the frozen chip industry. We have implored the government to ensure that the Anti-Dumping Commission is ready to act in case of the dumping of any products into Australia under the guise of lower global prices. That means ensuring the commission is adequately resourced and able to respond swiftly should the need arise. It was Labor that established the Anti-Dumping Commission, and we're rightly proud of that achievement, but its existence has not been sufficient to allay the fears of these workers and farmers, simply because the immediate impact of a product dumping could see their livelihoods wiped out before the commission's processes have an effect. They could quite easily become collateral damage in a market that is overwhelmed.

We have since been reassured by the Europeans that they will not be dumping their product, but we must remain vigilant. We must check when we go to the freezer at the supermarket. We must do everything we can to encourage investment in vibrant regional industries to lead us out of this economic crisis. One worker said, 'The last thing we need is a kick in the guts by cheap imports.' To the McCain potato workers, the potato farmers and the AMWU I say: good on you for drawing this to the attention of the nation, and please stay vigilant. We stand with you.