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

So the Liberal Party will not oppose this bill in the Senate as we do believe these changes will create new opportunities for Australia’s wheat industry. There are a range of views on this issue. We are well aware of that, and I pay my respects to those in the gallery who wish to see the past arrangements continue. But the parliament does have to make a decision about the future of export wheat marketing, which is of course a function of legislation passed by this parliament. We do need to make a decision on this now, because something has to occur by 30 June 2008, the point at which the temporary arrangements put in place by the former coalition government expire. Those current arrangements were put in place by our government following the AWB scandal, the arrangements that were entered into with respect to Iraq and the effective collapse of those arrangements.

It was clear to the Liberal Party then, as it is now, that the single desk arrangements, with a monopoly exporter in the form of AWB, simply could not continue. If we were not to pass legislation of this kind now, we believe that would be going backwards. We do have to address the realities that we face and do our utmost to create new opportunities for Australia’s wheat industry.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—