Winston Churchill said: 'if you make 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law'.
In true Churchillian style he was railing against his successor, Prime Minister Clement Atlee on the floor of parliament against the eye-watering regulations of the post-war rebuild of the United Kingdom.
In 2018, I found myself bursting with a similar late-1940s style 'Churchillian' concoction of volume and veracity as a then-Kingaroy-based dairy farmer.
The ACCC had found no anti-competitive case against the decade-old supermarket duopoly's $1 milk campaign.
The juxtaposition between Churchill and I was that of the 10,000 regulations we had/have in Australia, not one could assist dairy farmers in their plight to survive.
Recently, the Department of Treasury announced a review of Australia's voluntary Food and Grocery Code of Conduct; the rules supermarkets choose whether they play by.
Today, with $1 milk in the rear-view mirror but well engulfed in a cost-of-living crisis I now find myself asking the question of where I do stand on the 'deregulation versus regulation' argument.
I have evolved - we need better regulation, and we need it desperately when it comes to supermarkets.
Australia has always had an incredibly concentrated retail grocery sector, with market share dominated by just two players.
Figures from 2021/22 put the retail grocery market split at: Woolworths 36 per cent, Coles 28pc, Aldi 9pc, and the rest with independently owned supermarkets.
Well over half the market is still subjugated by just two players. We have not yet reached genuine market competition.
For comparison, getting to 64pc of the market share in the UK there are four companies, and nine in the US.
Triggering Treasury's review must be the near zero number of complaints raised through the established dispute processes of the voluntary FGCC, averaging just one a year and all directed at one company.
Of those four complaints, none were adjudicated against the retailer.
I am a genuine cynic, but fair dinkum? None?
Why does this matter for agriculture? The threat is real of suppliers having their product delisted or down-shelved if complaints are made.
A drop in sales volume increases the unit cost dramatically.
As I argued in my last column, in the pass-the-parcel game of cost shifting, it is the farmgate where the music stops.
I will begrudgingly accept 10,000 regulations but please, make sure they are fit for purpose and mandatory.
- Damien Tessman, dairy agribusiness manager
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