Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Mallee for his question. Of course, we know that the wheat growers in his area and in fact wheat growers right across Australia are very interested in the ongoing relationship that we and they have with the markets across the world. Given recent events, it was decided that I should lead a delegation to Iraq over last weekend to meet with senior ministers in the Iraqi government in terms of the ongoing ability of Australian wheat growers to have access to that market. I can report that that delegation and that visit have been extremely successful in getting a clear indication—announced as part of a joint ministerial statement between myself and Dr Ahmad Chalabi, Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister—that the Iraqi government is going to continue to welcome tenders from Australian wheat growers and Australian exporters to get wheat into that market in Iraq.

Whilst I was there I had meetings with Prime Minister Al-Jaafari, Deputy Prime Minister Chalabi and trade minister Basit Karim—three senior ministers in the Iraqi government. At the time, the Iraqi government was dealing with a very sensitive and difficult domestic circumstance after the bombing the week before of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, but they saw the importance of the relationship between Australia and Iraq as having such standing that they saw me in the middle of all that was going on there. I received a guarantee from the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister—the man directly responsible for wheat trade—that Australia can continue to tender for Iraqi wheat contracts.

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