Globalisation, Uneven Development and Marginalisation: Dairy Restructuring in New South Wales
Author(s)
Davidson, Andrew
Abstract
Framed within the globalization perspective, the article explores what can be expected with the dismantling of corporatism in the Australian dairy industry. Proponents of deregulation claim that it is an inevitable consequence of globalisation and will strengthen rural economies through increases in efficiencies and productivities through competition. Critics, on the other hand, question its inevitability and caution that “its outcomes will be spatially differentiated because of the strongly localised geography of production”. The purpose of this article is to help re-frame the debate in Australia by posing new descriptive understandings and analytical alternatives through an examination of New South Wales’ dairy industry. The article briefly addresses the debate on the unevenness of the effect of deregulation on the dairy industry and whether or not smaller-scale enterprises are inimical to an unregulated milk industry and one that is increasingly oriented to producing milk for an export market.
