Court appeal: milk meter finding upheld
Milk hauliers using a milk measurement system without permission collected millions of litres of milk during a seven-year period unbeknown to farmers and milk processors, a court has found.
The Federal Appeals Court recently upheld a 2018 decision in favour of milk collection engineering company Flo-gineering against five milk haulage companies — Blu Logistics SA, Wastell Milk Haulage, Wadene, JR Bulk Liquid Transport, and Jurss Robertson — for misleading both processors and producers between 2013 and 2020.
The haulage companies – whose customers included Fonterra, Parmalat Australia Pty Ltd and, at the time, Murray Goulburn – were found to have used an approval number originally given to Flo-gineering, which guarantees the integrity and accuracy of Flo-gineering’s measurement systems for its clients.
In July this year, Blu Logistics and four other hauliers appealed the initial 2018 court ruling, which ordered the hauliers to pay Flo-gineering $465,477 plus agreed interest of $271,498.12.
Tankers visited farms in NSW, Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania. In the initial ruling, the judge found 26 of the hauliers’ tankers collected milk using an approval number allocated to Flo-gineering without approval, with the judge finding the hauliers had “engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive”.
It is understood Blu Logistics and the other hauliers employed an independent certified calibrator, who applied the approval numbers to each of the flow meters on the 26 tankers. Court documents show the terms of the approval required the approval number be used only by individuals authorised by Flo-gineering.
Speaking in court in 2018, former Fonterra senior executive Antony Miller said the accuracy of flow meters was important for the dairy industry, being “the basis upon which farmers are paid” and “is part of an integral system for the milk processors to control inbound milk volumes”.
Madeleine Stuchbery, The Weekly Times, September 28, 2023.
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