(10 mins) Todays Landline article has me asking quite a few questions, not least of which is how much was the subsidy obtained from AGL to broadcast it? Its a 16 minute story, which Ive cut down to ten, and added some explanatory notes to, but it is a classic study in how to make CSG look good, and hail it as a saviour for the ailing dairy industry in the Gloucester Valley. AGL wants to put down (at least) 110 frack wells. The story mentions its going to be NSWs largest CSG project (but with 850 wells proposed for the Pilliga, I cant see that to be the case). The story sets things up by explaining how there are huge opportunities in Australia for exporting milk to China. Sean Murphy reports theres been a lot of talk about the end of the mining boom and the potential of the so-called dining boom. Kevin Hobgood-Brown (who Im sure Ive seen in an annual report for a fracker a year or so ago mentioned as corporate counsel, but is at least a former gold miner - help me out here, folks) puts it (with copious smiles) Dairy for New South Wales could do for this State what iron ore did for WA. But there are limits on fresh milk exports, they dont have a long shelf life, and have to be flown out from a major international airport, like Sydney. Powdered milk and the infant formula market is the holy grail. And guess who wants to bankroll up to four milk processing plants in NSW? A bloody G bloody hell. The story outlines the rise and fall of the dairy industry in the Manning Valley, and its pretty bad. Whats really bad is that farmers only currently get 52c a litre wholesale for their milk, and Norco chairman Greg McNamara was holding up an increase to 55c as a saviour. Australian fresh milk in China can go for as much as $9.50 a litre - hint, hint... Mike Logan from Dairy Connect (whatever that is) is a real advocate for increasing milk production, yet toward the end he uses a massively invalid circular argument to justify everything: We have to grow the industry. This is the really critical factor... So wed be looking for the farmers across the State over the next 5-10 years to find another 500 million litres... Its the trend - everybodys getting bigger. You have to get bigger to stay in business. So we need to find a new market for these farmers to get bigger into. Let me get this clear - you have to have more farmers to supply a bigger market, but when you get more farmers, you need a bigger market for these farmers to supply. Right, that settles it. Whats more interesting is how they hold up northern Victoria as the major player in the powdered milk industry and show Bega Cheese as not wanting to build any milk plants in NSW. Bega have a turnover of nearly a billion dollars annually - what would they know? Despite producing some cheese at Bega still, they produce nearly all their product from a Victorian source. So in order for NSW to get into the game, its strongly implied the capital will have to come from AGL. They are playing the interstate rivalry card to split national opposition to AGL funding of a fracking industry based on a dairy revival for NSW which no Australian milk company seems to want to touch with a bargepole. Mention is also made of AGLs generous offer to provide treated frackwater for irrigation to the Gloucester dairy farmers! How thoughtful of them to be able to contaminate the water table with heavy metals and make all the milk exports to China remarkably safe!! Whats disappointing is this ran with the cachet of ABCs Landline programme - every farmer in the country will get to see it and watch intently, soaking up the spin. The full 16 minute video and full transcript is available here: abc.net.au/landline/content/2014/s4064241.htm Please SHARE! And dont forget to like us here at facebook/GIACSG
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 10:12:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015