Joe Hockey

Protecting farmers from ourselves

/ dairymilkmaid / 13 Comments

Apparently farmers cannot be trusted with anything. Not even to want the highest farm gate milk price for ourselves.

Bega has just sold its stake in Warrnambool Cheese & Butter to Saputo, putting the Canadian billionaire on the brink of controlling WCB even though a higher price was on offer from Aussie farmer co-op, MG.

This happened because our co-op hasn’t been allowed to bid during the bidding period.

Australian farmers who want to invest in their own futures and who are willing to pay the highest price for WCB have been stymied by a government artifice in the name of protecting…you guessed it…farmers from themselves. Apparently, another processor that thrives on a low farmgate milk price is better for us farmers than having an efficient farmer-owned co-op.

This Aussie dairy farmer will never forgive Joe Hockey for sitting by and watching.

So, where to now? That, my fellow source of low-cost milk, is up to us, for although Saputo can buy WCB’s stainless steel, it cannot buy our future. Only Australia’s dairy farmers decide where our milk flows and our fortunes lie.

Cooperation versus investor returns – the future of dairy farming in Australia

/ dairymilkmaid / Leave a comment

MMM: Below is the first paragraph of an article by Professor Tim Mazzarol that appeared in The Conversation this week and, while it’s a long read, it puts everything facing Australian dairy beautifully into perspective.

If you feel as strongly about this as I do, please contact the office of Treasurer Joe Hockey on 02 6277 7340 and ask to speak to an advisor, as well as your local MPs and even Barnaby Joyce on 02 6277 7520 (who has no direct authority in this matter but does have a cabinet voice). The pollies need to know what farmers think so that they can give us a fair go.

Cooperation versus investor returns – the future of dairy farming in Australia

By Tim Mazzarol, University of Western Australia

The battle is heating up between Australia’s Murray Goulburn Co-operative, Bega Cheese Ltd and Canada’s Saputo Inc. over the acquisition of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Ltd (WCB). Much of the discussion around who will end up buying WCB has focused on share price and investor returns, but there are much deeper issues at stake. These relate to the tensions between long term collective ownership of dairy supply chains by Australian farmers and the short term gains of shareholders. How this battle unfolds may decide the future of farmer control over Australia’s dairy industry.

Read the full article at The Conversation.

Dear Joe, how will you be remembered?

/ dairymilkmaid / 9 Comments

Dear Joe,

Why have you betrayed me so cruelly?

You came to me in September with promises of fatherly love and affection. You described me as your pillar and that, after mining’s bloom had faded, I would be your everlasting rose. You said you needed me and that, without me, you would forever be insecure.

But now that my fate lays in your hands, you act swiftly to hasten the courtship of WCB by Saputo whilst locking me in the cellar, dressed in rags. I implore you to at least allow me to attend the ball so that I may win the hand of my beloved.

Your faithful Milkmaid

Okay, I never really fell for you, Joe, but here it is:

  • Before the election, you described agriculture as one of the five pillars of the economy and said that food security was important. I’ll hold you to that.
  • For Australia to have a dairy sector, it must be able to compete with the international goliaths. That means we need a big processor with scale.
  • Australia’s dairy farmers are sticking together and want to grow so we can be more resilient. We absolutely have to because we don’t have the subsidies, FTAs, cheap labour or government support enjoyed by most of our competitors.
  • Our 100% Australian farmer-owned cooperative exists to maximise farm gate prices and consolidation rather than competition is what’s needed. We are prepared to step up to the plate and invest in our futures.
  • You gave the giant, privately-owned, foreign Saputo a huge leg-up with swift clearance, declaring Australia “open for business” with a grin on your face.
  • Don’t hide behind the ACCC or the slow-as-a-snail tribunal. Where there’s a political will, there’s a way. Your Kiwi counterparts knew that doesn’t make sense and cast their equivalent aside to allow the much-admired Fonterra to take shape.
    To pin us to such a protracted process while ushering though our foreign competitor is to drive a stake through the heart of the co-op’s bid.
    You surely understand the irony of thwarting MG’s bid based on competition policy when it is Australian farmers themselves desperate to become more competitive who are driving this bid and, in turn, are being rendered non-competitive in this fight to keep WCB Australian-owned by you, our own government!
  • You are the biggest impediment to Australian farming families taking a greater stake in our own futures by keeping WCB Australian owned.
  • If you insist on holding us back, you will be remembered as the man who sold Australia’s dairy farmers down the river. And for what? The love of Lino?

Joe, it’s time you stepped out of the way and gave us a fair go.