There is an e-petition currently before the NSW Parliament, Reinstate Norco as the Dairy Supplier for NSW North Coast Hospitals, created by Harper Dalton-Earls on 23 August 2024.
Harper Dalton-Earls is the Labor candidate for Lismore City Council at the 14 September 2024 NSW local government elections.
This e-petition will be closed to signatures on 15 November 2024.
Labor MLA for Lismore Janelle Saffin has been an active supporter of the push to restore the NORCO milk contract and of this e-petition.
Ms. Saffin also publicly called out the NSW Nationals MLAs Gurmesh Singh (Coffs Harbour), Richie Williamson (Clarence) and Michael Kemp (Oxley).
In an effort to draw oxygen from the e-petition to parliament on 26 August the NSW Nationals announced their own petition accessed via their own website:
North Coast Nationals MPs have joined forces to launch a community petition calling on the Minns Labor Government to restore Norco Milk to health facilities across the Northern NSW and Mid North Coast Local Health Districts.
The petition was launched by Member for Clarence, Richie Williamson, Member for Coffs Harbour and Deputy Leader, Gurmesh Singh, and Member for Oxley, Michael Kemp at Andrew Wilson’s Lismore dairy farm.
The petition emphasises the significant impact on local farmers and communities and urges the Minns Labor Government to reverse its decision to remove Norco Milk from North Coast health facilities....
BACKGROUND
ECHO, 27 August 2024:
Lismore MP Janelle Saffin has come out swinging at conservative National Party representatives who have chosen not to support restoring local milk producer NORCOs contract to supply North Coast hospitals and health services.
The contract that NORCO held to supply local hospitals with milk was once again cancelled and HealthShare NSW awarded its state-wide milk supply contract to international supplier Dairy Farmers.
Ms Saffin said she is disappointed that three NSW Nationals MPs are not lending their support to a single e-petition to Parliament to restore NORCO’s contract.
‘Constituents have contacted me wondering why my fellow MPs Gurmesh Singh (Coffs Harbour), Richie Williamson (Clarence) and Michael Kemp (Oxley) are not backing in the e-petition launched last Friday,’ she said.
Kevin Hogan.
While Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan released a statement blaming the NSW Labor government for the decision it was the National Party who first made the decision in to end the contract.
‘When the Nationals were in government and the same thing happened, we all backed in the then local member Thomas George and the Health Services Union ran a big campaign, fully supported by the community and after some time, people power changed the decision of the then bureaucracy,’ explained Ms Saffin.
‘It is people power we need this time as well to support our local NORCO employees and dairy farmer suppliers who are part and parcel of the NORCO dairy co-operative. We need 20,000 signatures to get this issue debated on the floor of Parliament and that is powerful. To have two separate petitions in circulation is already leading to confusion in the community and effectively weakens our chances of getting the required number of signatures.’
NORCO is Australia’s largest and oldest dairy co-operative and supports 190 local farms, buying their milk and creating premium products that are celebrated as ‘Australia’s best tasting milk’ at Dairy Australia’s, Grand Dairy Awards in 2023.
‘We’re talking about Australia’s last 100 per cent farmer owned dairy cooperative that provides an economic lifeline to hundreds of families in a region that has experienced the double whammy of floods and the cost-of-living crisis,’ said HSU (Health Services) secretary Gerard Hayes.
‘This is not the time to cut off a trusted local company with deep roots – We’ve even heard reports of patients refusing to drink the hospital milk unless it’s NORCO, which shows you how deeply the community feels about this!’
Ms Saffin as reiterated that, ‘It was the bureaucracy that made this recent decision to award the tender to a different supplier, but I, on behalf of the community, expect the Minister for Health and Regional Health (Ryan Park) to work out a way to fix it.’
‘That means NORCO getting its contract back as it was to deliver its products into the North Coast Hospitals and Health Services.’
Sign the petition here.
