In February 2015, 9 buyers boycotted the first sale at Northern Victorian Livestock Exchange (Barnawartha) to force the saleyards to adopt post-weighing.  This heavy handed approach was the final straw for the beef producer community who have long suffered from the misuse of power by the processing sector.  The ensuing uproar triggered the Senate Inquiry into the red meat processing sector.

Black Star Angus Principle Julian Carroll made a submission to this inquiry and gave evidence at the Albury sitting on 2nd September 2015.

Opening Statement

“There’s no money in farming.” This was my Dad’s catch cry throughout my (and my sibling’s) childhood.  It was true for the 80’s and 90’s.  It probably still rings true for many.  That’s a pretty sad thing for a 3rd generation farmer to tell his children but he was right.  Had he sold the farm and put the money in a term deposit he would have enjoyed a higher income.

So we all went to the city to pursue careers in banking, finance, and IT.  And then we all bought farms.

I tell that story because it says much about the passion we farmers have for what we do, and why we do it for such meagre returns.  Sadly, I think this passion makes us easily exploitable.

I decided to make a submission to this Senate Inquiry and to appear today because I know how effective the processing sector is at lobbying and how vigorously they will be working in Canberra to tell our government that “everything is fine”.  

On behalf of every producer I know, I’d like to say that everything is NOT fine.

I studied economics at uni.  I understand the market forces of supply and demand.  I agree that these forces under pin the beef industry.  But for the free market to work fairly, buyers and sellers need to be on equal footing.  In Australia, for every buyer there is 1000 sellers.  The sellers have no power in this in balance.

When a free market does not operate effectively, it requires regulation to ensure fairness.  If the free market was operating effectively then producers would be benefitting from the unprecedented high demand and high prices that the processors have enjoyed for the last 2 years.

Submission

Senate Inquiry Submission (pdf).