Queensland’s former Premier called for Olympic athletes to eat the best of Queensland beef in 2032.

Must those Olympians drink imported UHT milk with their brekkie, along with the rest of Queensland?

Because the market for dairy products is inefficient and unfair, and our climate makes milk production more expensive, Queensland’s milk production has been sliding backwards for two decades; we now produce only 45 per cent of what we consume.

Unless this decline is reversed, we’ll more and more be forced into un-fresh options like UHT milk as in much of Europe.

Queensland produces some of the best milk in Australia, and so much of our state is great for dairying.

Queensland’s best dairies are among the best in Australia, and our dairy industry can be prosperous, vibrant and resilient. Yet reliance on only the dead hand of the market is forcing the state backwards.

Continued production decline puts at risk the economic viability of both local dairy farming and milk processing, on which so many regional communities depend.

Even without further decline, importing our fresh milk from down south is less and less secure, with growing risks from disaster, import and supply chain failure, disease and more.

We rely too much on supply from Victoria, which might at any time be diverted to meet demand elsewhere.

Last year’s report to the Federal Parliament, Australian Food Story: Feeding the Nation and Beyond, demands a coherent plan for dairy product food security.

Trucking fresh milk the length of Australia adds avoidable greenhouse gas emissions to the dairy industry’s social license risk, and reduces milk shelf life.

None of this is news to government and industry, but leaving the Queensland dairy industry to market forces has not slowed milk production decline, nor improved farm prosperity.

If Queenslanders are to keep their milk fresh, change is essential, and the evidence of the past 20 years is that this will require governments and industry to go beyond reliance on the market to sort things out.

Governments and industry must acknowledge that need for conscious and planned change, and show leadership to reverse milk production decline, or they are committing Queenslanders to UHT and powdered milk rather than fresh.

There will be a dairy industry plan for Queensland on the table very soon.

It won’t be unrealistic or expensive, but must be truly supported, to get the dairy industry on track to a prosperous, vibrant and resilient future.

– By Mike Smith, EastAUSmilk government relations officer.

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Sunday, 21st January 2024

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