Page 6182 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
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Skim Milk
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister responsible for the ACT Milk Authority. I assume that that is Mr Connolly. I refer to an incident in October in which the Milk Authority assumed control over the sale and distribution of skim milk in the Territory. Is it the case that the Milk Authority gave the Bega Co-operative and Dairy Farmers, the only two suppliers of skim milk in the ACT, just 24 hours' notice to stop selling skim milk in the Territory? Why did the authority take this draconian action? Why does the authority want to have sole control over the supply of skim milk in the Territory?
Mr Collaery: And when are you going to abolish the authority?
MR HUMPHRIES: Does the Minister endorse this action to extend the government monopoly, or will he undertake to review this decision?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Mr Humphries for his question. I am particularly interested in the interjection from the far corner because Mr Collaery, in true Mr Collaery fashion, on Friday, at the South-East Region Economic Forum, put two propositions to the forum - that the Milk Authority should be abolished and that Bega should be given a monopoly on milk supply. The suggestion of deregulating and replacing the authority with a monopoly is a convolution in thought that is really possible only from the Residents Rally. Perhaps it was a thought that occurred to Mr Collaery in a helicopter.
I thank Mr Humphries for the question. Mr Humphries may be aware that there is litigation pending between the Milk Authority and Bega; that Bega have issued writs challenging that very decision. So, it is inappropriate for me to get into the merits of the decision, other than to say that I understand that they took the commercial decision to exercise their statutory right to prevent foreign milk from coming into the Territory. The Milk Authority Act, which was enacted many years ago by the Commonwealth, does allow the Milk Authority to say that it can take control over the source of milk coming into this Territory.
While the Milk Authority may be out of favour with the deregulatory ideology of the Liberal Party, sometimes one has to look at real results rather than ideological theory. The fact remains that the Milk Authority delivers milk to Canberra consumers at a cheaper price than consumers pay across the border in New South Wales. So long as the Milk Authority delivers milk to the consumers of the ACT at a cheap price, I think it is doing a good job.
MR HUMPHRIES: I ask a supplementary question. I take it that the Minister does not intend to interfere in this proposed court action and direct the authority to take any particular action in respect of these developments?
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