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senate vote 2019-12-02#1
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2020-05-08 10:01:22
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Title
Business — Rearrangement- Business - Rearrangement - Saving Australia Dairy Bill 2019
Description
<p class="speaker">Pauline Hanson</p><p>by leave—I move:</p><p class="italic">That general business notice of motion No. 295 standing in my name, relating to the Saving Australia Dairy Bill 2019, be called on immediately.</p>- The same number of senators voted for and against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2019-12-02.4.2) introduced by Queensland Senator [Pauline Hanson](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/queensland/pauline_hanson), which means it failed.
- ### Motion text
- > *That general business notice of motion No. 295 standing in my name, relating to the [Saving Australia Dairy Bill 2019](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s1249), be called on immediately.*
<p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>On a point of order, Senator Cormann? Are you speaking to the motion or a point of order?</p> <p class="speaker">Mathias Cormann</p><p>I seek clarification. The business today provides for the introduction of the dairy bill put forward by Senator Hanson. The Senate has already provided—on Thursday—that Senator Hanson can introduce the dairy bill and she can indeed speak to it as part of the normal introduction procedures. It sounds to me as if the motion that she is now proposing is inconsistent with what is on the <i>Notice Paper</i>, so I'm just seeking clarification. We are prepared to provide leave, obviously, to do what is on the agenda, but if she is seeking to vary the agenda then we have not been advised of what the proposed plan is and we are not in a position to support it without any engagement from One Nation with the government in relation to these matters.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>I'll provide advice to the chamber, having just checked with the Clerk. Leave was granted for Senator Hanson to move a motion in relation to this bill. The effect of this motion would be to bring it on for debate, not for what I would call the more regular process for the introduction of a bill, where debate is adjourned to a subsequent day. Senator Cormann, to answer your inquiry, this would actually bring it on for debate immediately.</p> <p class="speaker">Mathias Cormann</p><p>I would indicate, on behalf of the government, that, while we are happy to facilitate the introduction and for Senator Hanson to give her second reading speech, we will not be supporting a variation to the business of the Senate in the way that is proposed in that motion.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>Senator Hanson didn't have an opportunity to speak before Senator Cormann rose. You can close the debate if you wish, Senator Hanson. The impact of this will be, I understand, that the debate will be put to a vote immediately after Senator Hanson speaks to it, so if any other person wishes to speak to it I suggest they stand now. If not, I'll call Senator Hanson. Senator Hanson.</p> <p class="speaker">Pauline Hanson</p><p>If I'm denied leave to actually have this up for debate then, pursuant to contingent notice, I will move that so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving the motion.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>Senator Hanson, just a correction: you were granted leave to move a motion to have the bill brought on immediately, which is a variation of the agreement last Thursday, which was to introduce the bill. The normal process would be to table an explanatory memorandum, have the bill introduced and table a second reading speech. We are now debating your motion as to whether or not we would proceed beyond those stages to a full second reading debate at this stage today, which was not agreed last week. So leave hasn't been denied for you to introduce the bill. We are now speaking to the motion—and you've got 20 minutes to speak to it—to introduce and have a full debate on this today, including other second reading contributions, not just your own second reading speech being tabled. So I invite you to continue to speak to that particular motion.</p> <p class="speaker">Pauline Hanson</p><p>I will, thank you. Australians will be listening to what is going to happen in this chamber today relating to saving the Australian dairy industry. As I've raised previously, we are losing the equivalent of one dairy farmer a week in Australia. They are devastated that they are actually being stopped. When I hear the Nationals say, 'But we are doing what we can to help the dairy industry,' it is not the truth. For 4½ years, there has been inquiry after inquiry into the dairy industry. Nothing has happened.</p><p>There's been talk about a code of conduct. Where is it? It was only because I forced the issue that this code of conduct has been drafted up, and it is a pathetic draft—absolutely pathetic. It is not addressing it. Why have we moved so far from the ACCC recommendations on a dairy code of conduct to something that has been drafted on the run and is protecting the processors? A lot of the dairy industry participants that I have met admit that it does not go far enough to protect the dairy farmers.</p><p>All that I'm asking for, and what the people of Australia want, is a fair farmgate price for dairy farmers' milk. You can't expect them to run a business if they are not getting paid the cost of their milk to produce that milk. Don't you understand where we are? We're in dire straits in this nation. We had 22,000 dairy farmers. We're down now to 5,200, according to what the minister told me last week. We've lost another 500 just in the last year and a half, if that. That doesn't mean to say that these people are producing milk. A lot of them have held onto their registration purely in the hope that the industry will turn around.</p><p>This government has been so supportive of our dairy industry being sold to foreign interests. Chinese own the biggest dairy farm in Tasmania, with about 19,000 head of cattle. They're exporting their milk overseas. There is no reason why we should be supporting this. They now want to buy up Bellamy's, which has been supported by our Treasurer Frydenberg, and people here have said, 'What's the problem with that?' We've gone from 12 billion litres of milk in the year 2000. Now we're just scraping over eight billion litres of milk.</p><p>You talk about registering the industry. People must understand that this industry is not what it was previously, when it was supported by the state and federal governments. This is not going to be supported by either party or either government. This is about the farmers having a contract in place that the processors must pay them a fair price for their milk, and you're going to deny them that. There is nowhere else in the world where this is the case. We're the only country that doesn't have a regulated industry. Even in New Zealand, their milk is regulated. America and Europe have regulated the dairy industry, and they're powering ahead in their export market and their domestic market. They're producing more milk now. But you are so blinded and so bloody-minded that you are prepared to actually destroy the dairy industry in Australia. That is our food security. That's the people.</p> <p class="speaker">Glenn Sterle</p><p>And where are the Nats?</p> <p class="speaker">Pauline Hanson</p><p>Exactly right. Where are the Nats? Where's the National Party on this? Where are you standing up for the dairy industry? Have you been out to any of the dairy farmers? Have you actually looked in their eyes? Have you ever seen what they're going through? You have no idea. If you don't support this bill to give them a fair farmgate price, all it is—</p><p>Honourable senators interjecting—</p><p>I don't want to hear the same old rhetoric. The actions on the floor of parliament speak for themselves.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>Order! Can I remind senators, firstly, that interjections are disorderly and, secondly, that this is a procedural motion about whether a bill should be called on for debate; it is not a speech on the second reading of the bill. Senator Hanson will continue without interjections.</p> <p class="speaker">Pauline Hanson</p><p>This is where it's so important. We are about to finish in parliament in four days. At the end of this week, we will go on our holidays—a holiday from this place, although probably a lot of us will continue to work. But the fact is that people out there are trying to grasp at straws, to hold on and to pay their bills.</p><p>I hear a National Party member—Senator Susan McDonald—say, 'Oh, well, we should get the retailers, Woolworths and Coles, to actually collect the money from the consumer, and then pass it back through the processors to the dairy farmers.' In what other industry do we do that in Australia? Do we tell the strawberry farmers and the other fruitgrowers, 'Sorry, you won't get your money until the retailers have sold their product, and then we'll give you back what we think is fair'? Didn't we try that? Didn't Woolworths and Coles put an extra 10c, which went back to dairy farmers, and then another 10c on top of that, which didn't go back to them? Do you really trust these two organisations that have the biggest monopoly in the country? These are the people—Woolworths—who underpaid their workers by $300 million. They didn't pay them the right wages, and you trust them to do this? There is no common sense to what you're saying here—that the farmer should not get at least a production cost. The bill covers a fair farmgate price. Even Barnaby Joyce has come out saying they should receive a fair farmgate price.</p><p>Then the other part of the bill is that the ACCC will oversee the regions to ensure that they will stipulate what a fair farmgate price is—not the parliament, not the members of the House, this chamber or any parliament. That is up to an organisation to actually set that up. The third part of the bill is the divestiture so that the processors will not control the market. Most of the processors in the country are foreign owned. Do you really think it's in their best interests? Let me tell you about the foreign ownership; you've allowed all our industries and manufacturing and our essential services to be privatised in the country. We have over 750 multinational companies here that have a turnover of $612 billion a year, and do you know how much tax they pay? $10 billion. The coalition thought it would be wonderful to actually increase that and go after multinationals to pay their taxes here. I have been advocating since 1997 that they pay their taxes in Australia. You did a wonderful job! You've reined it in by 1.63 per cent! We've got an extra $125 million! How wonderful you guys are!</p><p>So you are prepared to see this happen in a dairy industry that has a tradition in this country of providing the milk that we need for the domestic market. If you think it's going to actually upset the world trade, it doesn't work that way. This is a domestic market. How it can affect trade agreements is if we actually subsidise the dairy industry. They increase production, which then affects the world market. We are nowhere near that. What we are doing is ensuring that we have a dairy industry for future generations. Otherwise, I will tell you now, we will be buying long-life milk out of New Zealand. Their production is up to 22 billion litres a year.</p><p>So the fact is that we need to protect our dairy industry in Australia. It is very important. The people of this nation will be watching this today to see what we are going to do about it. I call on those people. Have a good look at this. If you are opposing this, I say to you: get the bloody guts to stand up as an individual and represent your constituency and the people of this nation, because they feel as if they have been absolutely forgotten. These people are on their knees. I've got one, a dairy farmer up in the Scenic Rim, who has to sign a contract with a processor to get 50c a litre for the milk. That is well and truly below production for a six-year contract. This is what the processors are doing. They're screwing dairy farmers so that they can't make any money out of it. All farmers want is a fair farmgate price.</p> <p class="speaker">Glenn Sterle</p><p>Bullying them!</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>
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