Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

From the outset, in discussing the objects, I believe that this bill neither responds to—as it certainly ignores the overwhelming view of Australian wheat growers—nor advances the position of Australian wheat growers. I cannot see how we can claim that it is responsive when it does not actually acknowledge the overwhelming sentiment of Australian wheat growers, who do not want to lose the single desk. They do not want to lose it because they believe losing it will not advance their position.

It is well and good to talk about individual producers, but we have to find out the full proposition with regard to their access to ports. There has been some conjecture as to whether, if this goes through—and I do not want it to—some individual traders will have access to ports, and the proposition with regard to individual producers I imagine falls into the same category.

I also seriously query the technical capacity of this act in regard to some of the major exporters who currently have agreements pertaining to ownership of ports—I specifically refer to ports in Melbourne. I query whether this act, as it currently stands, is technically correct or whether it has a fundamental flaw in its drafting. I specifically refer to whether the AWB will have clear and unambiguous access to their port. I understand that, although this is a technical inadequacy in this bill, we can live with that technical inadequacy until a later date, but I call into question the competency of a government that would put forward a piece of legislation that has a huge and gaping hole in the middle of it. This is an issue that I think has not even struck a feature tonight. It is amazing.

Not only are we about to vote on a bill that is technically inadequate, but no-one has proposed an amendment to fix that inadequacy up. That is something that I find peculiar in the extreme. I know for a fact that there are people running around this building tonight desperately trying to fix this hole. Now we arrive in the chamber to vote on it and, rather than fix the hole, we have just forgotten that the hole ever existed. I would like to clearly put on the record that I and the other National Party members do not support this in any way, shape or form, although it is a matter of conjecture where voting on every issue would lead. It is quite clear and apparent that this bill is neither responsive to nor advances the issues of growers. It is technically inadequate in its drafting, it comes here as a pack of toilet paper tickets and now we are going to vote on it and we are all going to look sombre and perplexed as we go forward with a piece of legislation that we know in the end has a huge, gaping hole in it that no-one wishes to talk about.