Pauline Hanson slams decision to give contract to supply milk to Chinese company instead of a locals

Pauline Hanson has slammed a decision to stock hospitals with milk from a Chinese company rather than local farms.

The politician released a statement on Friday saying she was ‘ropable’ the Queensland Labor Government had sent ‘such a major contract’ overseas after urging people to ‘buy local’ in a 2019 campaign.

Sunshine Coast dairy company Maleny Dairies tendered for the lucrative contract but it was divided between French-owned Lactalis Australia and Lion Dairy, which will soon be bought by a Chinese company.

‘This is absolute hypocrisy from Premier Palaszczuk,’ Senator Hanson said.

But a government spokeswoman said it made the decision because it was the only tenderer able to supply the range of dairy products required.  

One Nation Party leader Pauline Hanson has slammed Queensland’s Labor Government for awarding a milk-supply contract to off-shore-owned companies 

The One Nation leader said the state government was behaving as though it does not care about Queensland or its residents and that the decision was ‘bordering on treasonous’. 

‘(She) will happily send taxpayer funds to multinationals Lactalis and Lions, who pay negligible tax in Australia, when we have one of the best milk providers in the nation right here in south-east Queensland.’ 

Senator Hanson has demanded the contract be overturned and re-awarded to the Australian business.

‘Maleny Dairies is ready and able to fulfil the contract of up to 15,000 litres for local hospitals,’ she said. 

‘I’m calling on the Labor Government to do the right thing, overturn the hospital milk contract and give it instead to a local provider.

‘Follow your own promotions, support local jobs, and put Queensland businesses first’.

Maleny Dairies, an award-winning milk company, has sought an urgent meeting with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to explain why it was overlooked in favour of offshore interests. 

Sunshine Coast-based Maleny Dairies (pictured) was

Sunshine Coast-based Maleny Dairies (pictured) was

‘The Queensland government has spent last year saying it will support local Queensland owned businesses and Queensland jobs and then gives a milk tender to a Chinese and French owned company,’ the company said in a Facebook post challenging the decision.

‘Maleny Dairies farmers needed that contract and so did we. Local farmers will struggle to stay in business if we cant get the kind of support that Norco enjoys from their state government (in NSW).’

Owner and director Ross Hopper said claims his company could not supply enough milk for the Metro North Hospital and Health service’s 19,000 staff and one million patients were rubbish.

He also said the decision made a mockery of the government’s Buy Queensland strategy to support Queensland jobs. 

China Mengniu Dairy Co. (pictured on shelves in Beijing, China) will be partly responsible for supplying milk to Queensland hospitals

China Mengniu Dairy Co. (pictured on shelves in Beijing, China) will be partly responsible for supplying milk to Queensland hospitals

‘We’re currently doing over 200,000 litres a week. That tender was only five per cent,’ Mr Hopper has told ABC radio on Friday.

‘It’s hogwash. Why would we put the tender in if we couldn’t supply it?’

In a statement on Thursday, the government spruiked the fact staff and patients would continue to get ‘fresh milk’, sourced ‘as much as possible’ from Queensland dairies.

It said the government ‘knows the importance of supporting local providers wherever possible’ and pointed out the successful bidder, Lactalis Australia, began with the Pauls milk factory on the banks of the Brisbane River in the 1930s and had a head office at South Brisbane.

Lactalis Australia, who is owned and operated by French company Lactalis Group, sells an array of  popular dairy products (pictured) across the country

Lactalis Australia, who is owned and operated by French company Lactalis Group, sells an array of  popular dairy products (pictured) across the country

But it made no reference to the fact that Lactalis Australia is owned and operated by the Lactalis Group, a French business and the world’s largest fresh dairy company.

A small part of the supply contract will be serviced by Lion dairy, which is owned by Japan’s Kirin Holdings but is about to be bought by the China Mengniu Dairy Company, with that deal subject to a review by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Acting Minister for Health Leeanne Enoch said the government chose the only tenderer able to supply the full range dairy products needed. A Metro North spokesperson told the ABC Maleny Dairies could not supply enough product to service the contract.

The local company, which employs 50 staff and buys milk from 11 Queensland dairy farmers, hopes to secure a meeting with the premier and the health minister.

In 2008, products from 22 Chinese dairy companies were found to contain melamine, a toxic industrial chemical, killing six infants and making around 300,000 babies sick.

Australian baby formula has become a highly-prized commodity for Chinese buyers since the Melamime products to her while on Christmas vacation (stock image)

Australian baby formula has become a highly-prized commodity for Chinese buyers since the Melamime products to her while on Christmas vacation (stock image)

 

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