Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Will the minister outline to the House what progress is being made to implement the government’s commitment to reform Australia’s wheat marketing arrangements, and are there any obstacles to achieving these reforms?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. There is a very simple question at the heart of the government’s commitment to reforming wheat legislation and wheat marketing, and it is this: should wheat growers be allowed to choose who they sell their wheat to? The National Party has decided that the answer to that is no, but the problem is that we have to provide certainty to wheat growers. Wheat growers are now at a time when many of them either have planted or are about to plant and, understandably, want some certainty in what the marketing rules will be for the next harvest. Against that, we have the unusual situation where the shadow minister does not speak on behalf of the opposition.

Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order in relation to standing order 100(e). This bill is before the House and the minister should not be debating it.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What has not been understood by the members of the National Party is that the current legislation, post 30 June, changes everything. After 30 June this year, if we as a parliament do not change the current rules, all the protections that the National Party believe they want to keep in place will disappear. The ministerial veto will go. The concept of the single desk that the National Party are claiming they want to keep will actually disappear under the current legislation. The current legislation leaves us with the worst of all worlds, so the National Party have said, ‘We’ll take that one.’ Unfortunately, we have now waited for months and months to find out whether or not that reflects the position of the opposition in order to be able to provide certainty for wheat growers.

On 20 March, I wrote to every member of the opposition guaranteeing that they could have private briefings with my department. Those briefings were provided on a confidential basis and remain so. But the question remains: do the Liberals agree with the Nationals? An exposure draft was put out and we still could not find out. There was a report from the Independent Expert Group, but we still could not find out if the Liberals agreed with the Nationals. Then Liberal senators added comments to the end of a Senate report and we still could not find out whether the comments of those Liberal senators matched the position of the Liberal Party. So not only do we not know whether the Liberals agree with the Nationals; we still at this moment do not know whether or not the Liberals agree with the Liberals.

We have been trying to work out what on earth it is that unites those opposite. Then Senator Sue Boyce let us know. In a particularly impressive publication called ‘Effective Opposition’, which surprisingly was made by a member of the opposition in the federal parliament, Senator Sue Boyce let us know what the main game was. She said, ‘It’s full of tips and strategies to help maintain our focus at branch and SEC level on the main game—beating the Labor Party.’

What happened to the main game being a plan for the future? What happened to the main game being providing choice for people who grow wheat? It is actually their wheat; it does not belong to the National Party. It is their wheat and they should have the choice of who they sell it to. Who they export their wheat to is a choice that the government believes they should have. It is a choice that the National Party believes should be denied to them. It is a choice that one day, if there is any interest in providing certainty for wheat growers, the opposition will declare a position on.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.