Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank other members of the chamber for facilitating my participation in the debate on the Wheat Marketing Amendment Bill 2006. As outlined when this debate started yesterday, those of us in this place, from all parties, understand the need to pass this legislation and the need to give some certainty to the wheat growers of Australia. Of course, coming from Western Australia there are some particular issues associated with it. The issues are a bit more complex than perhaps they are in other states, so I rise to make a brief contribution.

Yesterday when Senator Boswell was making his contribution he was heralding the great job that those in the National Party had done in, as he alleges, looking after the needs of wheat growers. I have to say to Senator Boswell that the wheat growers in Western Australia do not vote for the National Party, so I do not know that he can claim a mandate on behalf of all of them. A percentage of them are known to support my side of politics, and of course there are the others who support my fellow Western Australia representatives—people such as Senator Johnston and Senator Adams. But these days there are not too many of them who vote for the National Party, so perhaps Senator Boswell should choose his words a bit more carefully. It is not his mandate and his mandate alone to represent their views in this place.

In Western Australia the wheat industry is a bit more complex than perhaps it is on the east coast. The wheat farmers in Western Australia do not have the same choices that those on the east coast do about where they choose to sell their wheat. Transport and other costs do not make for the ability to decide whether you will export or sell within the internal Australian market. It is not quite as economically smooth for the west coast. The wheat tends to be consumed within Western Australia or it is exported. Therefore, there have been issues concerning wheat farmers who choose to use CBH, and their desire to export their own wheat and the role of AWB in using their veto to exclude them.

There does need to be certainty, but I think there also needs to be some flexibility regarding how wheat farmers in Western Australia market their wheat and who they can sell it to. As I say, if we in Western Australia decide to farm in Western Australia we do not have the luxury of deciding whether we will sell in New South Wales or in Queensland. That is economically prohibitive. In my view, we do need to open up the market a bit more and allow some of the most efficient wheat farmers in the world the flexibility that they deserve and, in doing that, we need to give them certainty.

Labor will facilitate the passage of this legislation, but we also need an open and accountable inquiry into how we will progress this. It cannot just be the fiefdom of one political party. We actually need to get everybody on board. We need to have an open and transparent process, where we consult with all of the players—including the major players in my home state—and come up with certainty and a system in place to guarantee the survival of what is a very efficient industry in my home state. I would say it is more efficient in my home state than in many other places.

We need an open and accountable process and we need to consult with all of the players—not just the players that want to toe the line of any one political party—to ensure that we give wheat growers the certainty and the structures that they need so that they are not disadvantaged, whereby they perhaps have to protect some more inefficient growers. Whilst I am happy to facilitate the passage of this legislation, we do need an open and accountable process. We do need to know where we are going from here. We need to implement the stopgap measures, and we need to consult with everyone in the industry, not just the fiefdom of the National Party.