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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 3497 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

that it is not right to refer the price of milk to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Commission. We have done it for electricity, we have done it for water, we have done it for gas, we have done it for taxis and we have done it for bus fares, but we cannot do it for milk because they want to keep their heads in the sand. This is not fair.

Under Labor's regime, consumers would pay more. It is a shame that I am wrapping this debate up. I would be interested to hear how small a levy Mr Hargreaves thinks that the people of Canberra should be paying for their milk. The price of milk should rest with the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Authority. They should be determining the price. This Assembly has given them the responsibility to do that.

I am disappointed at the head-in-the-sand approach of the Labor Party. In this debate we have to understand that it is the Trade Practices Commission, not the ACCC, that grants the exemption, because it is the Trade Practices Act that we will be violating. This Assembly can grant an exemption, but the Trade Practices Commission has the right not to accept that exemption, which would expose everyone in the milk industry in the ACT not to a market that will change at the end of 12 months or 18 months, or two years or three years, but to a market that potentially can change overnight, bring down our vendors, end the jobs of runners and close the milk plant. Unless we take this seriously in this place today and make sure that we get it right and pass the Government's amendments to the Milk Authority Act, we will be doing all in the ACT a great disservice.

The Government has said that we wish to protect the vendors as best we can. We cannot protect them from external circumstances that may occur in Victoria and New South Wales if and when they deregulate their farm gate price. We have said that we would like to protect Goldenholm Dairy. We can do that by extending the framework to 30 June. This Assembly cannot control the circumstances. We have said that we would like to ensure that the processing plant continues in the ACT. Therefore, we need to ensure that we do not throw the whole market open to attack by ignoring the reality that an exemption has to be approved by the Trade Practices Commission.

Mr Speaker, the Government's path forward is clear. We offer vendors choice, and we offer them opportunity. Working with my colleague the Minister for Health, we will remove from some of the food Acts conditions that preclude vendors from extending the range of products that force them to work possibly more nights than they have to and at hours that they would rather not. We will let them have the sort of industry that they desire, but for that industry to continue we have to show that we are genuine in our endeavours to reform a government monopoly market, and we need to do that through the reforms in this Bill.

This Bill is quite simple. It slits away the Milk Authority's functions. It says that it is right for my department to administer the territories as a regulatory function. That is what governments are for. It says that it is right for the Chief Minister's Department to administer pricing. That is what the Chief Minister's Department is for. They will refer it to IPARC and IPARC can set the prices and the margins. The Bill says that we will help the vendors in whatever way we can by giving them certainty through the exemption that we would then take to the Trade Practices Commission. We will allow vendors time to look at their market and to build up their industry so that they have certainty.

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