Labor has warned the Turnbull government’s new sugar peace deal – unveiled after a brief voting strike by the One Nation senate bloc – could offend Australia’s free trade agreement with Singapore.
The Turnbull government late on Wednesday night pledged to introduce a mandatory code of conduct for Australia’s sugar growers, millers and marketers – ending a three-year fight over sugar-selling agreements between Wilmar and Queensland Sugar Limited.
The unveiling of the code followed a warning by Pauline Hanson on Monday that her One Nation senators would abstain from voting on government legislation until the dispute between QSL and Wilmar was resolved.
Settling the sugar dispute puts the One Nation bloc back in play for the critical company tax cut vote in the Senate, expected on Thursday night or Friday morning.
Great news! It looks like the cane growers of Queensland are getting their code of conduct! Hopefully this brings them some relief. #auspol
— Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) March 29, 2017
The government has made it clear it needs the tax vote this week, which is the final sitting week before the May budget.
Labor has blasted the sugar deal as policy on the run, and the shadow agriculture minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, said on Thursday there was a prospect “this code of conduct, if not properly constructed ... will offend our free trade agreement with Singapore”.
Wilmar International Limited is listed in Singapore.
Fitzgibbon said he had conversations with representatives of the Singaporean government in Australia, and they “expressed concern about what’s playing out here in the sugar industry”.
He said Labor was prepared to have a dialogue with the government to ensure the new code did not fall foul of Australia’s obligations under the Singapore free trade deal.
The new package outlined by the government in a late night press conference on Wednesday provides for compulsory pre-contract arbitration for agreements between sugar suppliers and millers; and it has a mandatory pre-contract arbitration provision for agreements between marketers and millers.
Unveiling the deal, the treasurer, Scott Morrison said the new code would contain a compulsory arbitration process.
“In the event that negotiations or an agreement breaks down, then I have the power under the act though this regulation to appoint an independent arbiter … who goes in and listens to the various positions of the parties and comes to a conclusion which is binding on the parties,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday night.
The government is proposing to implement the code through regulation. Labor is not ruling out disallowing the deal.
Fitzgibbon said Labor was not opposed in-principle to codes of conduct “that are properly constructed and done in consultation over a period of time”. But he said it was clear why the government had rushed to seal the deal. “It’s just so obvious and transparent,” Fitzgibbon said on Thursday.
“This is about the vote in the Senate ... around company tax cuts and it’s about a wounded Barnaby Joyce scrambling to protect him and his party, including George Christensen, from the scourge of One Nation.
“They know they are in enormous trouble in Queensland, they are going to attempt to save themselves at the expense of millers and growers and those who invest in the sector.”
