Katters Australian Party Member for Hill, Shane Knuth has urged the Federal Government to avoid a repeat of the near destruction of Queensland’s Dairy Industry when it was deregulated 25 years ago.
Mr Knuth highlighted the similarities after reports that Australian owned Bega Dairy had cut prices paid to Australian Farmers because of the availability of cheap imports.

“Before the Federal Government deregulated the dairy industry it provided a 50 per cent surplus of Milk to the state and had over 1500 dairy farms. In just over two decades since deregulation we lost over 1200 dairy farms and now produce a 50 per cent deficit in milk supply, which means we have to import milk from interstate and overseas,” Mr Knuth said.
Mr Knuth said he can see the same thing happening to peanut farmers, many of whom operate on the Atherton Tablelands, unless the Federal Government intervenes to support the industry.
“The Federal Government, on both sides of politics, are beholden to being part of the free market, which means they trade one industry off against another. The result is the flood of cheap peanut imports into Australia, which could have a long-term devastating effect on our home-grown industry,” he said.
Mr Knuth said that Bega also had to take on some of the blame.
“Bega is an Australian owned company who heavily promote using Australian products in their food ranges, so they should honour that and show some loyalty to local producers.”
He said it had taken over 20 years for the dairy industry to recover where farmers recently secured a 17cent per litre farm gate price increase.
“I don’t want to see the peanut industry go through the same pain. The lessons learnt from that debacle should be used to aid peanut growers in Australia.,” Mr Knuth said.
“We all know that our farmers abide by some of the most stringent quality control regulations in the world, so when you eat Australian grown, you know you are eating quality product, which you cannot guarantee with imports.
“I firmly believe that the majority of Australians will pay more for food if they know it is made up of Australian produced ingredients and Bega should be mindful of that.
“I call on the Federal Government to immediately intervene, assist our peanut farmers and stop the import of cheap peanut product into the country.”
Hi J Madison, Re: “Mr Knuth would do a service by investigating what tax jurisdiction BEGA pays tax in.” Now THAT is an excellent point. Nice. Would possibly provide an explanation as to HOW Bega (from such humble beginnings) over a relatively short period of time has acquired such immense wealth and monolithic status. ??Something definitely doesn’t smell good.
“Another Rothschild/ Blackrock boon to own the world.” Exactly.
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Mr Knuth would do a service by investigating what tax jurisdiction BEGA pays tax in. Probably another beneficiary of Pig Iron Bob Menzies, foreign corporations tax scam, which no Australia political party has ever repealed.
These people pay zero tax here while the Zionist /Marxist masonic filth from the ATO hound Aussies into oblivion for tax compliance. Another Rothschild/ Blackrock boon to own the world.
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Ed… Cains News is shaping up to become Australia’s go-to site for survival advice, and for patriotism. Now that is something to be extremely proud of.
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Hi Valerie Andrewartha, I would suggest giving the Mayvers brand a go. They are 100% Australian owned using Australian nuts. Their dark roast is especially good if you like full bodied.
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Precisely tonyryan43. And it probably doesn’t pay to delve too deeply into these corporations. I had absolutely no knowledge that the previous CEO of Bega, Maurice Van Ryn was jailed for 13yrs for mass paedophilia. He was replaced by the former executive director Paul Van Heerwaarden (another ‘Van’), who remains the current CEO. If you look even closer, there appears to be connections to Deutsche Bank – of whom many of us know lists Blackrock as an investor. Sheesh! I’ve seen enough.
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I wholehearted agree. I buy Bega peanut butter because it is made in Australia with Australian peanuts. We will not buy any product that is made from imported products that we don’t know the origin. Absolutely no food from China.
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DJ… that is the key issue, for sure. Obsessional egos, driven to acquisitions and power. That is why I dislike corporations and favour cooperatives
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Hi tonyryan43, Well it’s now looking like a helluva lot of notes. In a $534 million acquisition of Kirin Holdings Lion Dairy and Drinks…
“25 January 2021
Bega Cheese acquires Lion Dairy and Drinks on 25 January 2021, brands including, Dairy Farmers, Daily Juice, Farmers Union, Big M, Dare, Pura, Masters, The Juice Brothers and Berri.”
And others, including Vitasoy products. It’s a far shorter list of what Bega DON’T own. Essentially Bega have cornered the market.
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DJ… dropping notes into cheese sections… brilliant.
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Just double up-ticking the observations by John Appleton; reportedly, a calf fed on commercial milk died in six weeks. In Europe, you can buy raw milk in shops and roadside coin drop machines. It is perfectly healthy and legal in Europe, and yet corrupt medical bureaucrats continue to claim raw milk is dangerous. I grew up on raw milk and, at 79, have the health and fitness of a 20 year old. Pasteurisation is not for health safety. It is for long term commercial storage and transportation and is chock full of mastitis pus, rBST, and antibiotics. Most nutrient has been destroyed. Yet none of this was information imparted by my 4 year study of dairy science. Go figure.
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Dear Editor,
I find the statement “When the . . . . .industry deregulated” peculiar. Deregulation in our once fair land actually resulted in MORE regulations in the aviation industry, of which I was a part before my retirement.
As for the dairy industry, even though modern day science has shown that Pasteurisation makes milk and milk products less safe to consume our QLD government regulators and the TGA still have their respective heads in the sand and insist on cooking milk rather than permitting the consumer to decide if they want truly Fresh Whole milk.
Surely there is but one source here in SE QLD but they’ve tried putting this supplier out of business for decades.
For more info check out Cleopatras Bath Milk and The Campaign for real milk here https://www.realmilk.com/
Both Kingaroy Peanuts down this end and another up your end near Atherton make superior peanut products compared to anything from overseas. But we have already been importing these inferior products for years. Its part of the globalist agenda, you see.
Capilano Honey have been importing cheap Chinese honey for decades but still calling it Australian, this according to Change dot org.
The whole lot of the low life pollies and drongos from the globalist movements are trying to find more and more ways to make us sick.
Thanks for being part of the resistance
John Appleton
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And here I was thinking I was supporting a decent Aussie company 😦
No more Bega cheese or peanut butter in my house either.
Can’t believe how much like mushrooms we’ve been kept!
Glad I’ve found CN community.
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Yep tonyryan43, like you, am nearly finished my current pack of Bega cheese and will switch. Seriously contemplating putting notes in the appropriate refrigerated cabinet.
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Tony B, JM and DJ… Aussie patriots. The ultimate compliment beyond knighthood.
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Knuth, you said an effing mouthful there and I, for one, will take heed. Bega, how could you? When I have finished my current pack of Bega cheese, that wiil be the last. From Bega, through Dalmeny and all the way to Darwin, I will be urging friends and family to boycott Bega products. This will be like cutting off a family member but, war is war. And as Australia slides inexorably towards civil war, I urge Bega to consider the consequences. Traitors only have one reward.
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The thing to look at is how much money BEGA donates to political parties. And which ones. Start a public campaign to boycott all BEGA products.
If peanut processors paid more not less domestic producers would be able to grow more. The recent cost hikes ought to indicate that producers need more money, not less.
Some idiot Wizz kid accountant no doubt has influenced this short sighted decision. Perhaps he studied how the National Party destruction of 80% of our dairy farmers benefited BEGA and the other thieves in the milk industry so decided on a return.
Just get the message out there, don’t buy BEGA. Tell all your friends.and tell the supermarket boss.
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Bega are anti-Australian as they send a proportion of the price Australians pay for their products to Muslim “charities” through the “Halal certification” racket.
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Hi Tony B, Quite right. And bugga Bega! –
am boycotting them too from this point on – just as I did with many brands like SPC; who toed the scamdemic line and enforced the death shots on their employees. People need to research companies and then vote with their wallets.
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I dont care what anyone says, we need tariff protection for our farmers, at least that way they get a fair price for their produce, and protects our farmers from overseas interests who dont care an iota about aussies. they just dump their cheap crap on our markets.
our governments are corrupt to the core, they couldn’t lie straight in bed.
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