Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Hansard source

That mindset from government senators should not amaze anyone, but it indicates what a closed mind this government has about improving legislation. I heard what Senator Abetz said about Labor’s amendment. What Labor would have occur, as set out in our amendment, is a proper, authoritative consideration of all the issues around the single desk by people appointed who have the powers and protections of an inquiry conducted by the Productivity Commission in accordance with the Productivity Commission Act 1998. They would have the ability to probe all of the material held by AWB and AWB International. They would have the ability to make determinations and recommendations and those determinations and recommendations would be made public.

If you can believe the utterances of this government and leaked sources coming from the government, what we are going to have is some inquiry appointed where the government will hand-select some people on the basis of criteria we have no understanding about. There will be a secret report to the government and the government will say, ‘We’ve made a determination; we’re going to put this new system in place’—if, indeed, they change the system. In the opposition’s view, this will be a political fix, just like the current set of arrangements.

Looking at the current set of arrangements, back in 2002 and 2003 the opposition was saying to the government: ‘The Wheat Export Authority is a paper tiger; it is useless. Grain growers are paying money to prop up this organisation.’