Australian Dairy Industry Council

The Australian Dairy Industry Council (ADIC), representing the combined voices of dairy farmers and processors through ADF and ADPF, undertook a substantial program of policy work during 2024–25.

ADIC’s advocacy on the EU trade negotiations reinforced the industry’s position that any agreement must deliver meaningful dairy market access. This included major submissions on trade and market access, reflecting ADIC’s role as the whole-of-supply-chain body advancing the industry’s national interests. Key examples from the year include ADIC’s joint submission with Dairy Australia to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the United Arab Emirates. ADF, ADPF and DA attended together as witnesses at the public hearing held in January 2025.

ADIC also lodged numerous, significant submissions on broader free trade agreement (FTA) settings, including the inquiry into utilisation of benefits from FTAs and detailed input on India economic engagement. These sat alongside sustained advocacy on the EU trade negotiations, where ADIC reinforced the industry’s position that any agreement must deliver meaningful dairy market access.

ADIC’s work extended beyond trade into national regulation, competition policy and food standards. ADIC wrote a number of letters and submissions to the Victorian Government on its proposed Dairy Food Safety Victoria regulatory reforms. It also made coordinated whole-of-industry submissions on areas such as climate and energy policy (including the Victorian Energy Upgrade consultation and ACCU method reviews) and food labelling reforms, through its joint input to FSANZ on health and nutrition labelling requirements.

These efforts were complemented by extensive engagement across inquiries into supermarket margins and supply chain behaviour, ensuring dairy’s concerns about pricing pressure, competition, and market fairness were presented as a unified ADIC position.

Across the year, ADIC maintained a consistent flow of high-quality submissions and policy interventions that strengthened the dairy sector’s influence at federal decision-making levels. Its joint letters on issues such as Canadian dairy exports, its engagement with national trade and investment inquiries, and its coordinated work with Dairy Australia all reinforced a clear and coherent industry stance on water buybacks, drought policy, biosecurity, carbon methods, labour and skills, and truth-in-labelling.