Nick G.
Over 300 dairy farmers and their supporters took to the streets of Murray Bridge on March 27 to protest at the supermarket duopolies and their milk pricing policies.
They demanded higher milk prices, government assistance
and increased market regulation.
The march was led by a young boy wearing a sandwich board
saying “I just want to be a dairy farmer”.
The sentiment captured the feeling of hopelessness that
has descended on many dairy farming families squeezed to the point of
bankruptcy by Coles and Woolworths.
Wellington farmer Melanie Walsh hit the nail on the head:
“No one wants to buy our land; our cows are worth diddley-squat, next to
nothing; we can’t get out; we’ve got nothing.”
Farmers complained that the difference between the high
cost of producing milk and the low price paid for it was on average around 5
cents per litre.
With an average farm producing 2 million litres annually that
price difference constitutes a loss of $100,000.
One farmer, who took two cows to the protest, had a
placard that had supermarket profits, bank profits and processor profits all
with an upward pointing arrow, and dairy farmer profits with a downward
pointing arrow.
Nor is it just dairy farmers who are being punished by
the duopoly. Milking machine technicians
and refrigerator technicians face job losses as the number of dairy farmers
declines.
Several years ago Fair Work Australia gave dairy farmers
the right to collectively bargain.
The duopoly are trying to undermine dairy farmers’ unity
by by-passing processors and promising to buy directly from the producers at a
“higher price”.
This plays into the hands of the bigger farmers and
leaves the majority out in the cold. The
duopoly will not want to chase up milk supplies from a myriad of smaller
farmers if they can get what they want from several large producers.
Shadow Agriculture Minister John Cobb won few friends at
a meeting of the farmers when he ruled out regulations for the protection of
the industry.
The local Murray
Valley Standard pointed out in an editorial that farmers are “dreaming if
they think a Coalition Government will do anything to re-regulate Australia’s
dairy industry.”
“Where do you find a solution,” it asked, “when the major
political parties adopt economic policies that are hopelessly at odds with the
current demands of farmers?”
Leaving that question unanswered, as did the Standard editor, merely reinforces the
feelings of helplessness.
Dairy farmers need to keep the initiative in their own hands,
develop their unity at a local and national level, and raise the level of
struggle through direct confrontation with and pressure on the Coles-Woolworths
duopoly.
They are right to insist on re-regulation and government
support but must pressure the politicians and not rely on them and their
parliamentary processes.
Connecting with the broader movement for community and
workplace rights will strengthen the dairy farmers as other sections of the
community welcome their demands into the independent agenda for change in this
country.
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Further reading:
http://adf.farmonline.com.au/news/magazine/industry-news/general/march-for-milk/2652479.aspx
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Further reading:
Media reports:
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