Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I will not detain the Senate for long, but I want to speak to this issue because it is a vital matter for Western Australia, which, as everyone in this chamber knows, is by far the largest supplier of our export wheat market. Firstly, I indicate my very strong support for the veto extension whilst this matter is resolved and for that veto to remain in the hands of a government minister and not to be returned to AWB; and, secondly, I indicate my very strong support for this matter being properly considered by a Senate committee. I understand that the proposal of the Labor shadow minister is to excise the veto power consideration and get that done urgently, which I know our party would be interested in supporting, and then to have an opportunity to review the other matters.

I took the trouble to go to a couple of very large meetings of farmers in WA and I closely observed the attitudes and beliefs of those farmers. As is typical in very large meetings, those who spoke were those who had most courage or most conviction or the most public opinions, but those who did not speak—the vast, silent majority—needed careful appraisal. My considered opinion, as a student of politics and of the industry concerned, is that the vast majority do not want to retain a single desk and do not want to move to full deregulation; they want a regulated, licensed market where they have choice of export facility.

I also want to express my surprise at the government continuing to consider the absolutely contrary policy of a single desk in the wheat market. Liberalism, and I mean small ‘l’ liberalism, has at its heart a belief in the market. It has at its heart a belief in choice. It has at its heart a belief in free trade—governed, of course, by proper rules and regulations. That does not preclude careful licensing and control. Every day I hear the Prime Minister in question time going on endlessly about choice—choice of industrial agreements, choice in the marketplace and choice in every sector of our economy and society. That is the mark of a free society—that you do have choice—and to deny the farmers of Western Australia choice in who exports their product is a disgraceful approach to modern market economies. Members and senators ranging from the Australian Greens and the Australian Democrats through to numerous members of the Liberal Party and numerous members of the Labor Party support choice being available in this marketplace. I am deeply disappointed that the single desk is likely to be retained, but I recognise the political reality that time is needed whilst the matter is more fully worked out.

I put on the record my support for the efforts of Liberal senators such as Senator Judith Adams, members of the House of Representatives such as Mr Wilson Tuckey, and many others whom I will not name in seeking to introduce true liberal values into this market, to do away with the single desk and to allow wheat exporters choice, even in a licensed and regulated fashion. In my view that would be the best way to go. I strongly urge that the Senate consider favourably Senator O’Brien’s suggestion, which is to deal with the veto extension expeditiously and to review the other matters carefully over time in a Senate committee.

I put on the record my very strong belief in an open market and my belief that the Western Australian wheat farmers should be allowed choice in the matter of who exports their product and not be forced into a single-desk situation. The situation is quite extraordinary given that those political and industrial forces driving it are mostly, in my view, domestic producers of wheat and operate in a completely open market. The domestic producers of wheat over in the eastern states who do operate in an open market are busy trying to tell our exporters that they have to operate in a closed market. It is the most extraordinary inconsistency, and I know that at the heart of the Liberal Party there is great dissension on this matter. My vote goes with those who want an open, modern market situation to prevail and not a closed anachronism, which is what the single desk is.