Parmalat supplier and South Coast dairy farmer Tim Cochrane said his motivation for travelling five and a half hours was to show numbers and for a chance to tell the ACCC his fears for the Australian dairy industry.

“The impact of the $1 milk from supermarkets is still affecting my family’s business years on,” said the fifth-generation dairy farmer. 

Tim said on the South Coast he knows of family farms being sold and entire histories lost due to the lack of the foresight of the industry. 

"We are losing the identity of family farms,” he said. 

“The decisions are being made at a corporate level for short term gains, whereas we, in our business look ahead at generations. We look at our own kids and want them to have what we do.”