Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that Liberal senators will not be opposing the Wheat Export Marketing Bill 2008 and the Wheat Export Marketing (Repeal and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008. As is well known, this legislation creates an exporter accreditation scheme for the export of bulk wheat and represents the formal shift in our export wheat-marketing arrangements. Although progressive change has meant that the single desk has not been functioning for at least a couple of years in the manner in which it was established, this legislation removes the single desk and creates a scheme to accredit multiple exporters. It is a significant formal change, and we well understand that not everybody in the wheat industry supports this change. But the Liberal Party, on balance, believes that this change is inevitable.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—