Just when we thought the cost of living couldn't rise much further, the Labor government has passed what the Nationals are labelling "a fresh food tax", condemning it as an attack on farmers and families.

The new tax is a biosecurity protection levy, which, according to the Nationals, will force farmers to pay for the biosecurity risks of international importers.

“In what parallel universe would a government charge its own farmers to pay for the risks their competitors are creating?” Leader of The Nationals, David Littleproud said.

“This new tax will hurt families at a time they can least afford it and farmers who are already under pressure. It doesn’t make sense at all and comes amid a cost-of-living crisis. Farmers will be forced to pass on costs, meaning families will feel more pain at the grocery checkout.”

Bundaberg cattle and poultry farmer Jodie Healy also agreed the tax doesn’t make sense.

“I think it’s insanity on so many levels, it is almost like they are trying to destroy the farming industry deliberately,” Ms Healy said. “To me it just makes sense that people importing the products pay the levy – why should farmers pay more? With generational farmers and their children, the younger generation won’t want to stay on the land anymore if farming becomes too hard.

“I really think this new tax will cripple a lot of already struggling farmers. It also comes on top of the truckie tax. Farmers truck their produce everywhere, so this is just another blow.”

And while this law has passed, another proposed law is waiting in the wings, but this one has support from the farming lobby.

Farmers are also having their say about possible new laws given to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). If passed, the consumer watchdog would be given new powers to bust apart Australia’s supermarket duopoly; Coles and Woolworths, if they are found guilty of anticompetitive behaviour.

Under the proposed legislation, the ACCC could force the nation’s grocery giants to sell off parts of their operation if they were found to be engaging in practices such as price gouging or market power abuse. 

NSW Farmers Vice President Rebecca Reardon said the development was welcome news to the peak farming body, which had long been calling for the powers to be introduced to address serious market power imbalances in the supermarket sector. 

“Australia’s supermarket sector is one of the most concentrated in the world – and for years, we have seen farmers subject to gross market power imbalances as a result of this environment,” Mrs Reardon said. 

“In the recent Senate inquiry into supermarket prices, divestiture powers were one of the key solutions we presented to combat the anticompetitive behaviour of these giant middlemen, and it is a relief to hear this recommendation heard.”

As the bill entered the Senate this week, Mrs Reardon said many hoped meaningful competition reform was now on the horizon for the sake of farmers and families, who deserved fairer prices for their food. 

“Farmers shouldn’t have to accept prices below the cost of production, or contract terms on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis, nor should they have to face the prospect of produce being rejected for no given reason,” Mrs Reardon said. “Yet that’s been the reality for the agricultural industry as to date, there hasn’t been the powers available to bring these bad behaviours to account. 

“There’s now real hope on the horizon for farmers and rural communities who have been suffering with unfair prices at the farm gate, as well as families who shouldn’t be paying the prices they do at the checkout.”