Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to say at the outset, as I rise this evening to speak on the Wheat Marketing Amendment Bill 2006, that I realise we are short of time and we have agreed that we will spend limited minutes on this bill. But I want to say how very proud I am of The Nationals members in this House who have fought solidly to retain the single desk and the option that we have on the table at the moment. I would like also to make reference to the member for Pearce, the Hon. Judi Moylan, for her absolute, solid commitment to the facts and the issues that are confronting the growers in Western Australia. My admiration for the member for Pearce is extreme, and I want to thank her for all that she has done within this debate as well.

I think everybody who stands and represents growers is very passionate about this issue, an issue that has been foisted upon us through no fault of the growers and through no fault of the politicians. As might have been alluded to in this House, there are people who have a different opinion from me, but let me say that the members who represent wheat growers are very, very concerned about the position that we find ourselves in and are very passionate to ensure that we come up with the best possible outcome. Thus my thanks go to the Prime Minister for working through this with the Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile, Leader of The Nationals, and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon. Peter McGauran, for working through this process and listening to the concerns of their backbenches and being able to find a way forward to enable our growers to have a say.

I would like to refer to what I have found to be the most succinct and stable point of view that I have heard in this whole process. I am not going to mention the name of this person, but they are a Western Australian grower. Western Australia has obviously been very much at the forefront of this whole process. I am going to quote from this email, simply because it stacks up and succinctly says where we need to be. This person says:

I don’t mind improvement. I am very keen on being the best out there. But I am really not keen about being a political football. I am irate that my income, livelihood and my children’s future being used for someone else’s political purposes. Momentous changes of wheat marketing for this season are going to be voted on by those who have little understanding of the complexities of our daily lives and industry. For many, that is no fault of theirs, it is a set of complex inter-relationships and global business is understood by few. We have been poorly served by both our political representatives and our grower organisations.

…       …            …

I do not believe there is anything to be gained by precipitous action and if anything, dreadful mistakes can be made that cannot be rectified. I believe that calm, information (not media hype and innuendo)—

which we have seen happen in this House time and time again—

balance of many factors as this is not just marketing overseas we are talking about. This is a commercial, integrated, organised, national industry. It stands to be chopped up, bureaucratised with no economies of scale and pitting grower against grower, state against state, grain against grain.

United we stand and divided we shall fall. If we do not make our voice heard and it seems it is going to have to be individually, why would any politician worry about farmers?

This person says:

Please do not feel inhibited by your thoughts of “I cant make a difference” or “I’m not good at this”…

This person then goes on to say:

… you can by just making a few comments. The politicians need to know you really do care.

The email continues:

West Australian wheat growers, along with the vast majority of the nations’ growers, ask the Senators of the Australian Parliament to put the stability of our industry first.

Obviously this was written when there was the threat of a private member’s bill in the Senate. It continues:

We, your constituents in many parts of Australia, request that you vote against the Private Members Bill calling for the power of Veto to be removed from AWB International, the export marketing subsidiary of AWB Ltd.

We need certainty of marketing for the 2006 Harvest. We need an orderly marketing system. We need the Government to give certainty to the AWB 2006 pools. We must not have a change in the rules midway through this harvest. The time is critical. The harvest is drought affected and historically critically tight supply for both domestic and export customers.

This person, as a Western Australian farmer, says:

WA Farmers are warehousing grain as there is no market certainty. If you remove the power of Veto and introduce multiple sellers into the wheat market at this late stage you will give the kiss of death to the AWB 2006 Pool. Many growers, Australia wide have already delivered into these pools. The costs have to be divided between those growers. A pool has to be managed from early this year, well prior to planting even starting and for the following 18 months. Pools take every and all grades and types. Those opportunists who claim to be concerned for growers returns this year, promoting the introduction of this bill, can only market certain types and grades leaving many growers completely exposed. It is critical in this drought year that our long term customers are serviced, growers have certainty to use all the avenues of wheat marketing available to them and to maintain the viability of the current and past pools.

This person goes on to say:

WA growers are particularly exposed.

Now this person has put up the following suggestions:

2.

Maintain the current marketing arrangements for the current and past pools

3.

Review, with extensive consultation of growers, wheat marketing of Australia’s grain post 2006 harvest

Australian Wheat Growers need a strong national system of wheat marketing. WE enjoy no subsidies, we are the most efficient farmers in the world with the poorest soils, high input costs, high labour costs. We produce the highest quality wheat in the world and our productivity gains have been massive over the last 20 years. We are technological innovators, we are leading edge in farming and grain growing .We have wives, children and families in remote rural areas. We take pride in looking after ourselves, being independent and maintaining the strongest communities we can. We are the base of rural towns and industries and we are in trouble.

We ask only one thing of the Australian Parliament and that is to market our grain to the world from a position of strength—a single seller into a distorted global market.

I am saying to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and to the House: if every member gets involved, growers will be spoken to because they are all represented by members in this House. The more involvement we have, a greater voice we have. I suspect that the members of the House are the ones who should be consulting with their growers on an individual basis.

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