STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS: DAIRY INDUSTRY

I rise to raise an issue in my electorate which is quite pressing at the moment, and that is the demise of the dairy industry. Over a period of six weeks, I have lost six dairy farmers in my electorate. It is a shame to our nation. I choose not to reveal the names of the farmers, but some have been there for five or six generations and in the last couple of weeks they have lost their livelihoods.

When we have a look at the economic conditions surrounding the dairy industry and the price-leading activities of retailers, it is unfathomable—and let me say to the House that it is un-Australian—that we have a product with the nourishment that milk can provide to a family that is now priced cheaper than water. It is absolutely unfathomable.

Dairy farmers employ local people and buy supplies from local manufacturers—their tractors, their machinery. When they are gone from our society, we will be left with a product which is UHT. From a retail perspective, UHT, or long life, milk is a lot cheaper to retail because it does not need refrigeration and it does not need the labour component attached to rotating stock. Please, Australia, I beg of you, help me help my farmers. Help me reach out to the Queensland Dairyfarmers' Organisation, which on Tuesday is having its annual conference. I ask them in their deliberations to encourage the campaign to buy branded milk.