Retired National Party federal leader Warren Truss given Australia Day award for screwing the dairy industry
For long-term dairy campaigner and State MP Shane Knuth the 10c per litre milk rise through Woolworths is cautiously welcomed, however he said a 30c per litre increase was needed to save a collapsing industry.
Mr Knuth said dairy farming is disappearing in Queensland and more needs to be done by combined state and federal governments to revitalise and save the industry.
“In the year 2000 we had 1,500 dairy farms in Queensland. The day I tabled my Fair Milk Mark Bill in 2013 we had 540.
Thanks to both major parties voting down the bill we now have less than 370 dairy farmers left in the state.”
Mr Knuth added he is continually dismayed that Federal and State politicians will march arm in arm with producers at rallies and make bold speeches but do absolutely nothing in presenting legislation or taking action to save the industry.
“If we continue this trend of inaction we will have no dairy farms left in Queensland within the next decade and will be importing all our milk from other states and overseas.”
Mr Knuth added he was proud of his efforts to highlight the plight of Dairy Farmers, submitting two (2) private members bills and continuing to fight for the industry in Queensland;
“I have also put a motion into state parliament calling on all governments to pressure supermarket giants, that a 10c per litre increase be applied to EVERY litre of milk sold in all supermarkets in all milk producing states, with the 10c increase going directly back to the dairy farmer.
This would be a good start in helping to save the dairy industry.”
I reckon that’s close, Joe.
You will notice that milk powder and butterfat are commodities that are traded on the “futures market”. That means that some criminal, speculators, thieves (often associated with “multinational corporations” or merchant banks) can stitch producers up into “contracts” whereby they are screwed down to an unrealistically low price for their produce where such crooks are “the market” that thereafter “own” all the product and they also “screw” the consumers for whatever they can get. These corporate thieves never do anything useful as far as performing any service like producing, processing, packaging, distributing, etc. They are mere speculators and extortionists (thieves).
Let me give an indication of how these corporate “traders” work. Years ago (maybe 10 or 15, I don’t remember exactly) the grain market was looking good. World storage reserves were down, consumer demand was up, and the grain futures market was saturated with “punters” so these maggots went and “forward bought” the entire production of the main producers of agricultural fertilisers and chemicals. Thereafter they “owned” all of it and the price of all tripled in just a few months.
The trade deals are poison! There are just a way for the corporates to steal our stuff – same old same old..
Well said Joseph. The free traders of the ALP and LNP have destroyed every Australian industry and give themselves awards for privatising our publicly owned utilities and letting in the financial oligarchs and charlatans of the New World Order.Editor
ok – what should be done? I want to help..
Trev, I grew up on a dairy farm, we operated a most efficient dairy in the lower hunter valley. Our milk was prized by the OAK Factory at Hexam under the quota system. Later
on in life i fought to support the quota system amongst my extended family of farmers to no avail. The push by the lobyists and Government to comply with free trade and compeittion policy won the day. What you see today is the result. The market for milk powder is very profitable. Market forces dictate, for profit to be made someone some where in this world has to loose. The farmer takes the hit, the processers take the solids from the milk to turn into powder and profit, the retailers sell whats left at a discount, the public don`t know or care what is consumed. Investers are waiting to verticlly intergrate the farm as is done throughout the country in small business with the total blessing of both polical parties to the crime. This must stop before we become tenants in our formally owned Country.
Robert what’s happened – you have seen the light.Ed
Thanks Trev but something has to happen,Ed
This is rediculous . There is no understanding of the dairy industry. Bottled milk is a small portion of the total milk produced and $1/litre is a portion of this the majority is processed into milk powder which is sold on the world market and this to a large extent determines the farmgate price. Increasing the price by 30c will have very little effect on what farmers receive.This is backed by 17 yrs working in a milk powder factory .
What’s needed is a minimum farm gate price but the nationals led by Littleproud voted against that in parliament today.
I support the dairy farmers – all farmers.. I buy the more expensive milk and hope it helps. We must all realize the agenda – to remove our productive capacity and make just a quarry for the rest of the world – totally dependant on the Global structures.
This is stupid. It’s trying to make consumers pay even more to prop up the futures traders and other speculators and usurers who are the real ones bleeding producers into unviability and thus out of the production economy.
The price of packaging and distributing is nothing like the price difference between what producers get and what consumers pay.