Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fremantle for the question. The member for Fremantle, as one of the Western Australian members on this side of the House, is clearly in a position where she is intending to vote and support the interests of wheat farmers in Western Australia. This process began some years ago, and we should never forget the context in which this process began—a process where the corrupted AWB 'wheat for weapons' scandal needed to be undone. Back then, with the same position that the National Party adopts today, Brendan Nelson, as Leader of the Opposition, was willing to show a level of leadership and separate the way the National Party voted from the way the Liberal Party voted on a fundamental economic reform to restore probity to the wheat-marketing system. It is a grave shame that the level of leadership that was shown by Brendan Nelson back then—

Mr McCormack interjecting—

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