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Withdrawal and Discharge of the Bill

The Sugar Industry (Application of Transitional Provision) Amendment Bill 2017 was withdrawn and discharged from consideration by the Agriculture and Environment Committee on 13 June 2017, on a motion moved by the Member for Buderim. 

ABOUT The Bill

On 2 March 2017 the Mr Steve Dickson MP, Member for Buderim introduced the Sugar Industry (Application of Transitional Provision) Amendment Bill 2017 into the Queensland Parliament.  The Bill was referred to the Agriculture and Environment Committee for detailed consideration. The Bill sought to delay the commencement of certain provisions in the Sugar Industry Act 1999.

Section 298 of the Act imposes conditions on existing cane supply contracts between growers and mill owners, to take effect from 1 July 2017.  These conditions are detailed in Section 33B of the Act.

The Bill sought to delay the commencement of the conditions by a further twelve months to 1 July 2018 by inserting a new section 299, though it does not omit section 298.  According to the Explanatory Notes, the amendment "…allows QSL [Queensland Sugar Limited] and Wilmar Sugar to continue negotiations without the deadline pressure to complete."

Section 33B was inserted into the Act by the Sugar Industry (Real Choice in Marketing) Amendment Bill 2015, and is designed to protect growers’ economic interest in the on-supply of sugar they produce after it has been milled.  Section 33B currently applies to new cane supply contracts, and will apply to existing supply contracts from 1 July 2017.  If a grower has not agreed to the sugar they supply being marketed by the mill, Section 33B specifies terms to be included in their cane supply contract with the mill owner.  One of these terms requires a mill owner to have an agreement with a third party (normally nominated by the grower) to on-supply at least half of the milled sugar (section 33B(2)(d)(i)).  Without such an agreement, a supply contract to which section 33B applies will not be valid unless the miller and grower agree not to split the price exposure for the on-supplied sugar (section 33B(2)(c)). 

The proposed section 299 sought to extend the period in which existing supply contracts are not required to include the terms prescribed by section 33B. 

View: Sugar Industry (Application of Transitional Provision) Amendment Bill 2017
View: Explanatory Note
View: Explanatory Speech