State Labor urged to act to save jobs and industry

OCTOBER 30, 2015: A stalemate over sugar marketing arrangements could be addressed before the end of the year if the State Labor Government steps up to the mark and makes the legislative changes the industry has been calling for since the dispute began.The need for action was on the agenda during a site tour at Queensland Sugar Limited’s Bulk Sugar Terminal in Mackay this morning with Federal Government’s Agriculture & Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce.The Queensland Labor Government can deal with this issue once and for all by changing legislation in the Sugar Act to ensure growers get a say over who markets their sugar.Queensland Labor needs to act on this not just for the growers, but also for the QSL workers at the Mackay Bulk Sugar Terminal and the Townsville Bulk Sugar Terminal who will lose their jobs if the time-honoured marketing arrangement with not-for-profit marketer QSL is abandoned.A negotiator has been called in to hold discussions with millers and growers.I don’t want to pre-empt any outcome from these negotiations, but I do know that millers are quite intractable, and I fear that these negotiations will break down.There is a Private Member’s Bill going before State Parliament by December 5 and this bill has the support of the LNP Opposition.The Palaszczuk Government holds the cards to deal with this, and I encourage them to do so.But if they abrogate their responsibility, the Federal Government will be forced to consider a sugar marketing code of conduct.