States must 'consider all affected' by big decisions
GOVERNMENT needs to think of all parties affected before making big decisions, a deputy who tried to protect the interests of milk retailers has said.
Deputy Laurie Queripel was speaking after last week's dairy debate, which saw a failed amendment by Deputy Mary Lowe to keep the fixed price of milk in place until July next year instead of ending it in January fail.
He said it had been completely unfair for Commerce and Employment minister Kevin Stewart to suggest that those in favour of the move were only thinking about the welfare of the milk retailers and not the consumers.
'This is absolute nonsense, of course we are aware of the benefits to the consumer as well as to the farmers and the Dairy if the States gets the dairy industry model right alongside an optimum distribution model and we want to ensure those benefits are realised,' he said.
'The point is, why unfix the retail price for just a few months? It is the fixed retail price alongside the other conditions of the licence, zoning for example, that give security and stability to the rounds.
'By randomly removing one of those elements it increases the possibility that during that time-frame a round could lose its value and even become unviable.'
He added that, for example, it would only take a supermarket nearby a retailer's zone to drop its price for a milkman to lose a significant amount of their customers.
'Distributors and small shops were never consulted on this particular matter. No impact assessment has been done or scenarios run or modelling undertaken. It is in many ways an experiment,' said Deputy Queripel.
'The trouble is, it could result in harm being done to someone's business and livelihood. If C&E had agreed to keep the fixed retail price in place for this short period of time it would have been a gracious gesture on their part and perhaps would have helped to heal the rift between the department and the distributors.'
He was disappointed that States members did not see it this way.