The Agriculture Minister Mr Burke appears to be the minister for empathy not action, said Senator Barnaby Joyce, the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate. On Sky News Agenda this morning Mr Burke said one of the reasons for the increase in supermarket prices is input prices for farmers. This would suggest that farmers are price makers not price takers. Mr Burke has conveniently avoided the facts of the matter which are that farmers are getting less and less for their produce, but consumers are paying more and more at the checkout.

“Input prices for things such as fertiliser and chemicals have gone through the roof but farmers are unable to pass on these extra costs to the prices they get from the major supermarket chains,” said Senator Joyce. “It is just implausible to suggest, as Mr Burke did, that this is one of the reasons the price of groceries has gone up. In fact the prices farmers get for dairy products have gone down so when major retailers put prices of milk up, they are not covering the price of the farmers’ inputs they are just increasing their margins.

“For Mr Burke to suggest something else on Sky Agenda is misleading. Here are the facts. As far as Mr Burke’s concerns about fertiliser and chemical prices he should be doing all he can to break up the market concentration in the fertiliser industry that is causing farmers to have to bear the higher prices for inputs. And Mr Burke and his Government shouldn’t stop there. They need to deal quickly with the market dominance of the major supermarket chains which gives farmers less for their produce, but keeps charging consumers higher retail prices,” he said.

The margins farmers are getting are going down, but the margins of the major supermarket chains are going up. In addition, the European Union is increasing subsidies and subsidised products are pushing Australian products off the supermarket shelves. “The public are not able to discern the difference because of our weak country of origin labelling laws. Consumers are being exploited because of the overcentralised retail market with higher retail prices. The farmers are being exploited because the same retail pair dominates the prices they get and Mr Burke, the Minister for Agriculture, is doing diddley-squat about it.

“To add insult to injury, Mr Burke is part of the government process of implementing an Emissions Trading Scheme which will have immense cost implications for rural produce processors such as milk processing, abattoirs and sugar mills. These costs will not be worn by anybody else but the farmer and so they are further squeezed by Rudd Labor Government policy. As our farm sector goes out of business and is replaced by imports Australia loses its capacity of food sovereignty at a time of great international economic uncertainty. We rely more and more on others to feed us. That is the policy outcome Mr Rudd and Mr Burke are giving to Australia in the agriculture portfolio.”