Ag sector rallying to save ACCC ag unit from fed govt cost cuts

Concerns are rising that looming government budget cuts may undermine the ACCC's high profile efforts to improve rural market transparency and clamp down on unfair corporate buying and contract tactics.

Mr Keogh, the former Australian Farm Institute boss, joined the competition regulator as a part-time special commissioner leading the newly established agriculture unit in February 2016.

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Two years later he was reappointed in a full time role and promoted to deputy chair.

His job has specific responsibility for small business and agriculture and has involved driving the competition watchdog's increasingly active interest in the marketplace challenges and complexities encountered by farm sector businesses, particularly in the dairy, livestock, winegrape and produce marketing areas and Murray Darling Basin water trading.

Although it is not unusual for ACCC commissioners to serve more than one term, they are appointed by the federal government for five-year durations, which for Mr Keogh ends in June, by which time he will have served seven years with the regulator.

Advocacy body, GrainGrowers, noted, with alarm, suggestions the ACCC agriculture unit may be in danger of funding cuts in the upcoming federal budget and a downgrading of its work.

"Combining agricultural interests into the general remit of the ACCC would dilute the focus on a range of issues that require specific attention and expertise," said chief executive officer, Shona Gawel.

The ACCC's agriculture unit began in 2015 with a staff of 14 following the recommendations of the then Coalition Government's Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper.

Under Mr Keogh's watch, the competition watchdog acknowledges it has since had greater insight, capacity and focus on the wide-ranging agriculture sector.

Ms Gawel said there was strong support for the vital role served by the agriculture unit in raising and actioning issues across rural industries.

Any cutbacks or changes would be strongly opposed.

"The unit has provided growers with a specific avenue to engage with the ACCC to examine competition and unfair trading issues in agricultural supply chains," she said.

"It has not only educated industry and growers on various issues but has also delivered a strong oversight function deterring illegal or insidious conduct.

"These activities have helped to ensure a fairer playing field for primary producers and the markets in which they operate."

National Farmers Federation CEO, Tony Mahar, said there was no end of further work to be done in the ag space and his peak farmer body was making its concerns known to Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, Assistant Treasury and Competition Minister, Dr Andrew Leigh, Agriculture Minister, Murray Watts, and others in the Labor Government.

"Mick Keogh is widely acknowledged as doing a great job, and there is much more to do," Mr Mahar said.

Mr Keogh confirmed, his current term was officially due to expire on June 1.

While he had no expectations either way about whether his time would be extended, he did not foresee changes to the ongoing roles of the ACCC's small business and agriculture teams.

Mr Keogh said 2023 had already generated a lot of agribusiness activity on the ACCC radar, including the possible sale of United Malt Group to French giant InVivo, Saputo's milk factory sale to Coles, and ANZ Banking Group's ambitions to buy Suncorp.

He noted government funding decisions did, however, determine every government agency's workload capabilities.

In fact, some previous ACCC agriculture unit investigations into market behaviour in specific sectors such as the water market and the dairy industry were helped significantly by additional government funding.

NFF's Mr Mahar noted unease across the farm sector "about government funding cuts in general".

"There are a couple of programs that would be very concerning if they were downgraded," he said.

"Within the ACCC's ag space there's enough work to continue keeping it active for some time - notably, the chicken meat industry is one area we're focused on at the moment."

Former Australian Dairy Farmers CEO, David Inall, said the if not for the mandatory dairy code of conduct introduced in 2020 after an ACCC inquiry, milk producers would still be in a weak bargaining position at the mercy of unconscionable pressure by big processors and retailers.

Many other farm sector producers had also been empowered by the ACCC's intensified scrutiny and enforcement action of market arrangements since 2018.

"Australia's a big country with a lot of seasonal and geographic challenges for producers which can make them vulnerable to a condensed group of powerful market players who handle their produce," said Mr Inall, now CEO of Master Grocers Australia.

"Having previously worked in the US farm sector where they don't have access to this sort of support, I know we can't afford to take for granted the resources we have in the ACCC as a competition referee, or the personal interest of people like Mick Keogh.

"They're skilled specialists who are genuinely interested in the fair treatment of farmers and small business."

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