HINCHINBROOK MP Andrew Cripps says news the federal government will introduce a sugar industry code of conduct follows a marathon campaign led by the Queensland LNP.
Mr Cripps said since 2014, the LNP had been the only party consistently seeking to resolve the dispute through negotiation and then legislation in an effort to support stability in the industry and certainty for farming families.
Farm group CANEGROWERS has strongly welcomed the code of conduct. However, its has been strong opposed by the Australian Sugar Millers Council. (See comments later in this story.)
“Since the negotiation process started breaking down between growers, millers and marketers, I have always believed a federal code of conduct for the sugar industry was necessary and I’ve said so publicly on several occasions, so I’m pleased with this announcement,” Mr Cripps said.
“The Queensland LNP has worked with the federal LNP government on this issue for some time now and it just goes to show what can be achieved when you are part of a strong team that works together. You can secure positive outcomes for the people you represent.
“From inviting Wilmar to negotiate with the former LNP in Queensland, to the Senate Inquiry, to the Queensland legislation in December 2015, the Queensland legislation earlier this year and now the federal code of conduct, the LNP has been in the front line the whole time.”
Mr Cripps brought deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce to Ingham and Tully in mid-February this year.
“We engaged directly with farmers and local residents to ensure he understood how they felt and what they needed and I’m delighted he has followed through on his commitments,” Mr Cripps said.
The federal code of conduct has three components - a compulsory pre-contract arbitration between growers and millers, mandatory pre-contract arbitration between millers and marketers and grower choice in marketing for grower economic interest (GEI) sugar.
“This code of conduct could be implemented via regulation as early as next week, as the federal LNP government has been drafting this for some time in view of the hostility of the Palaszczuk Government and agriculture minister Bill Byrne towards Queensland cane farmers,” Mr Cripps said.
He said Mr Byrne’s ongoing claims that the actions of the LNP was a re-regulation of the sugar industry were a nonsense.
“This is all about providing some certainty for the industry and some security for growers in an environment where mills have the advantage of a natural monopoly,” he said.
But the Australian Sugar Milling Council (ASMC) said the code of conduct had been announced just 24 hours after tabling the Productivity Commission report which concludes overwhelmingly that government intervention in the sugar industry will cost the economy and jobs.
ASMC chief executive officer Dominic Nolan said the federal government has caved in to political demands of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party and sought to replicate the very laws that have failed the industry at a state level.
“This does nothing to help finalise current commercial discussions, and absolutely has the potential to set back those negotiations,” Mr Nolan said.
“This becomes law by stealth of regulation outside parliamentary sitting, with no consultation or due process, despite all assurances by the government to the contrary.
“There is no question that this unprecedented level of political intervention creates sovereign risk in our industry, and for Australia.
“Any appetite for investment in the sugar industry must be put under pressure by this decision to change the rules and reregulate based on political opportunism.”
Mr Nloan said the Productivity Commission had concluded there was no justification for the Queensland legislation, and that it will cost jobs and cost the economy, and will restrict innovation.
“The Federal Government last night announced their intention to not only replicate the Queensland reregulation, but to take it further,” Mr Nolan said.
“The industry should right now be focussed on two things: assessing the damage from Cyclone Debbie and getting on with repairs and recovery; and finalising contracts ahead of the 2017 crush, due to commence in June.
“Instead, the sugar industry has once again been thrust into the role of a pawn in a game of politics being played out between the LNP in Queensland and One Nation.”
