Member for Dawson George Christensen.
Member for Dawson George Christensen. MICK TSIKAS

MP calls Wilmar a bully and calls for Federal back up

DAWSON MP George Christensen has thrown his weight behind Queensland sugar growers supplying Wilmar mills and accused the sugar milling giant of "bullying".

Again he has called for an end to the Queensland Sugar Limited/ Wilmar Sugar stand off and demanded the government step in to implement a mandatory code of practice.

"Wilmar has had more than enough time to do the right thing of their own free will and it's time the government stepped in to stop the Singaporean-owned miller from bullying farmers," he said.

A Wilmar Sugar spokesperson retorted with: "we would simply say it's not true and there's no evidence to support such claims".

Since the passing of the Real Choice in Sugar Marketing Act in December 2015, Wilmar and QSL have not been able to come to an agreement on a raw sugar sales agreement or a supply agreement.

Both companies are competing for the ability to market the grower economic interest of farmers' sugar and have butted heads over the forced implementation of the new legislation.

"Every other miller managed to negotiate agreements and get on with the job, which shows that the Queensland legislation is workable if the miller wants to work with it," Mr Christensen said.

Mr Christensen said Wilmar had delayed offering agreements in the hope that a Federal Labor government would legislate or act to avoid compliance with Queensland's Choice in Sugar Marketing law.

A frustrated Mr Christensen said if the Turnbull Government failed to act in the interests of cane growers he would be politically "dead" in his electorate, and "I might as well not bother running at the next election under the LNP banner because there will be no point".

Wilmar Sugar refused to comment on Mr Christensen's motive for pushing a resolution to the Wilmar/QSL stand-off, which has been taken to the courts in the Burdekin.

But a spokesperson did say Wilmar was "absolutely committed to finalising a reasonable commercial agreement with QSL for the sale of our raw sugar as soon as possible."

"We've met with QSL five times in the last three weeks and continue to make steady progress on the small number of remaining issues," the spokesperson said.

Mr Christensen said farmers were already missing the opportunity to forward price their crop and lock in good sugar prices.

Wilmar disagreed.

"Growers are not being locked in to choosing Wilmar as their marketer. Growers can forward price now and then transfer their nomination and pricing to QSL once a GEISSA is finalised," a spokesperson said.

"Those growers who sign a CSA after a GEISSA is complete will of course have the opportunity to choose their marketer at that time."

Mr Christensen warned the sugar dispute was putting the economy at risk and could destroy the entire sugar industry.


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