Codes and Competition on Agenda

EastAUSmilk has in the last week held multiple meetings with Commonwealth public servants and politicians to discuss the Dairy Industry Code, Fruit and Vegetable Code, competition policy, and the needs of the dairy industry.

In Canberra and in Brisbane, Chief Executive Officer Eric Danzi and Government Relations Manager Mike Smith met with senior officials from Treasury and from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, as well as the Assistant Minister for Competition Charities and Treasury, Dr Andrew Leigh.

While eastAUSmilk has made substantial submissions to several of the inquiries currently underway into the behaviour of major supermarkets, we needed to understand where the multiple reviews of supermarkets are going, and what the next steps are likely to be. Also discussed were both the recent eastAUSmilk submission on the review of the Dairy Industry Code, and what comes next for that review.

Everyone we spoke with was very keen for information about how the market really operates, rather than dry economic theory, and we were able to provide many examples of anti-competitive behaviour and bullying, along the supply chain.

We also invested time, in some of our meetings, in explaining why farmers are demanding change in the priorities of Dairy Australia, and discussing some pressing research and extension needs which are not being addressed.

In light of these discussions, eastAUSmilk has responded to the recent Interim Report of the Review of the Food and Grocery Code, by calling for more detail on how big supermarkets must change to eliminate bullying and retaliatory behaviour towards suppliers, reshaped our call for supply chain margins to be monitored, and tackled the need for the uncompetitive outcomes of national pricing and preferential pricing for private label products to be addressed.

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry told us that once they have fully digested the submissions made in response to their recent Dairy Industry Code discussion paper, they will be making recommendations to Government about the scope of the full second review of the Code, and how it will be conducted. They have not yet fully examined and evaluated those submissions, but Minister Murray Watt recently committed that the second review will fully commence in September this year.

By Mike Smith, eastAUSmilk Government Relations Manager