19th Aug 2015 – Senate Motions - Sugar Industry - Act on Committee's recommendations

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Queensland Senator Glenn Lazarus (Independent), which means it passed. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own, but they are politically influential since they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the Australian sugar industry directly employs approximately 16,000 people across the growing, harvesting and transport sectors,

(ii) 95 per cent of the sugar produced in Australia is grown in Queensland with the balance grown in New South Wales,

(iii) the sugar cane industry is one of Australia's largest and most important rural industries, and sugar has been identified as Queensland's most important rural crop,

(iv) the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References committee in its report Current and future arrangements for the marketing of Australian sugar recommended the development and implementation of a mandatory sugar industry code of conduct, and

(v) sugar cane growers are urgently seeking the assistance of the Government to support them in ensuring the long-term viability and health of the Australian sugar industry; and

(b) calls on the Government to act on the Committee's recommendation by working with stakeholders across the Australian sugar industry to develop an industry code of conduct, and to ensure that sugar cane growers have the flexibility to engage any party to undertake marketing and establish an independent arbitrator to undertake pre contractual commercial arbitration.