5 years ago
$1 milk: Coles distracts with publicity stunts; Aldi goes into hiding
The Hon. David Littleproud MP
Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud has encouraged shoppers who want a sustainable dairy industry to switch their business away from Coles and Aldi after both stuck with $1 milk, despite dairy farmers around the nation begging them to abandon it.
Minister Littleproud, who kicked off the extra 10 cent idea in August when he pushed supermarkets for it, said it should not have taken public brow-beating from a politician to force supermarkets to do the right thing.
Minister Littleproud said Coles needed to be called out on publicity stunts and rubbish claims it has made in the past 24 hours whilst Aldi needed to be called out for going into hiding.
“Publicity stunts like asking shoppers to donate at the counter to help struggling farmers are just a smokescreen to hide the fact they pay bugger all for milk,” Minister Littleproud said.
“The farmers wouldn’t need donations from the public if Coles and Aldi paid fair prices. Publicity stunts won’t change that.
“The big German needs to come out from hiding under the stairs and face the Australian public.”
Coles put out a statement yesterday which says: “Coles is committed to finding a better model that can be adopted by the industry to assist Australian farmers.”
“Coles has said this since August so it’s now time to put up or shut up,” Minister Littleproud said.
“Act like a decent corporate citizen instead of just pretending to.
“I encourage farmers to get out there in their local paper, radio or TV station and call this arrogant behaviour out. The Australian public deserves to know the truth. I also encourage Wesfarmers’ shareholders to contact Coles and let them know they don’t want to continue this approach of hurting farmers in private whilst handing them bouquets and small donations in public when the cameras are on.”
Coles’ statement yesterday also said: “We also note that the ACCC has previously examined the Australian dairy industry and concluded that house brand milk pricing does not negatively impact farm-gate milk prices.”
This is what the ACCC report actually says:
“The dominant picture that has emerged is one of significant imbalances in bargaining power at each level of the dairy supply chain. This begins with the relationships between retailers and dairy processors, and progresses down to the relationship between processors and farmers.”
“The ACCC named retailers – supermarkets – as the top of the tree; the big end of town squeezing the life out of the processors and farmers. Australians are not idiots. They know if the big guy pays bugger all for milk then the farmer gets bugger all for their milk,” Minister Littleproud said.
“Buying your local brand of milk instead of supermarket brand milk helps dairy farmers, and shopping at independent supermarkets helps dairy farmers too. All farmers want is a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”