If he really believed his own spin, he would call for an increase in the price of milk, but fortunately common sense kicks in before he goes that far, so he just sticks to meaningless spin.

Even if supermarkets halved the price of milk, they would still have to get it from somewhere, and they would still have to pay farmers what it costs to produce the milk. They would have to pay more, because when they lower the price of milk, people consume more.

Farmers would whinge even more if the supermarkets artificially inflated the price of milk. In fact, they could end up in jail for doing that, because that would actually harm both producers and consumers. Newman is being a sycophant by validating this nonsense. Newman knows that the milk price discounts are not funded by reducing the amount paid to farmers. He should be honest about what is really going on.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman says the supermarket milk wars are huring the state's dairy farmers

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/queensland-premier-campbell-newman-says-the-supermarket-milk-wars-are-huring-the-states-dairy-farmers/story-e6frg6n6-1226593499564

SHOPPERS may love cheap milk but Premier Campbell Newman says the bargains are hurting Queensland farmers.

He wants supermarkets to change their discounting to allow more profits to be pumped into the dairy industry.

While he has stopped short of suggesting raising prices, he has claimed the consumer-friendly prices are driving dairy farmers to the wall.

The major supermarkets have driven the price of milk down to $1 a litre which the dairy industry has blamed on a wave of farm failures in Queensland.

In Gladstone yesterday speaking at an Agforce meeting, Mr Newman said he wanted to see the supermarkets negotiate a viable supply agreement that would keep the industry alive.

"I am deeply concerned about the actions of major supermarkets to drive down the prices they pay dairy farmers," Mr Newman said.
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"It's getting to the point where we will not have a viable, sustainable dairy industry in this state.

"I'm calling on the major supermarkets to negotiate proper supply agreements that keep the dairy industry alive.

"It's time the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Federal Labor Government had a proper look at this issue."

Queensland Farmers Federation chief executive Dan Galligan said the industry welcomed the Premier's comments and was grateful he had shown an understanding of the issue.

"Savage discounting of retail milk prices is indeed threatening the future viability of the Queensland dairy industry and policy recognition of this is required," Mr Galligan said.

Woolworths chief executive Grant O'Brien said he recognised farmers had been affected but said that the company was working through issues with the suppliers.

Didn't Bligh want to have a man van going around to feel men's nuts?

cods wrote on Mar 14^th, 2013 at 1:59pm:


When you buy an iphone how much of that do you think goes to the chinese guy who actually makes it? It is a lot less than what goes to the store clerk who sells it to you. No-one is forcing these people to be farmers and there is no reason for the rules to be any different for them.\

BTW, you can get fruit for far less than 16c a kilo. The thing about fruit is, it grows on trees. If you can be bothered shopping around you can buy it for a lot cheaper than what coles and woolies sell it for. It doesn't mean the farmer gets paid any more.

Farms are scaling up. One of the biggest fearmongering stories you hear is that the number of farms is decreasing at an alarming rate. What they don't mention is that they are being replaced by larger, more efficient farms. For some reason farmers (and I often see similar stances from pro fishermen) think that is is 'natural' to do things exactly the same way they were done 100 years ago, and expect to be able to participate fully in the modern economy doing so. If you compare it to any other industry, the change is actually happening much slower with farming. I suspect a lot of it is cultural - many people do it because their parents did it that way, as did their parents, as did their parents, who were children of convicts who had never seen grass before they were handed a block of semi-arid dirt in the middle of nowhere.

Dairy farmer Pete Middlebrook is one of those whose livelihood is under threat because he is selling milk at just 35 cents a litre.

Fellow dairy farmer, 48-year-old Nigel Hicks says he is selling his milk for even less.
"At the moment the milk price we've been getting is 25 or 26 cents a litre. The cost of production does vary from farm to farm, but for us it's around 43 cents a litre," he said.

There are now 6,700 dairy farmers in Australia, down from almost 12,000 just over a decade ago.

Dairy Farmers president Noel Campbell says Coles' spin is misleading.
"Part of the reason why people are so angry with the Coles situation is, whether you supply domestic or the export market, people think milk being sold for $1 a litre is just wrong," he said.

"The amount of capital expended on farm, the amount of labour expended on the farm, long hours etcetera, people just see it as a slap in the face."
Coles is owned by Wesfarmers, a company that began life as a farmers co-operative.

It declined 7.30's request for an interview, saying none of its executives were available.

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It is not industrial farming that does that, but 'bad farming practices'. In many ways the little farm is more likely to do something wrong, out of ignorance or neglect. There are plenty of farmers who don't bother to read the label or don't even know how to.

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There we go, a good example of spin without qualification of what this really means.

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Hypocrit.

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I think it is great.