Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Wakefield for his question. I note his interest in having wheat growers in his electorate who are involved both in selling to the domestic market and in selling as exporters. There is a serious danger for wheat growers post 30 June. If the current legislation remains in place, there is serious uncertainty and a disastrous economic mechanism that gets left by the old legislation post 30 June this year. The only way that certainty can be delivered for wheat growers is for us to be given an opposition position—their attitude—on the draft legislation. The problem we have here is that the shadow minister in the other place who is represented here by the Leader of the Nationals has been unwilling to put forward a position on behalf of the coalition. This leaves wheat growers with no level of certainty at all.

I acknowledge the comments from the member for O’Connor in an article by Michelle Grattan in the Age today in which he said he was sure the government will accept technical amendments. Certainly we are serious about having discussions on that. That is the reason why we have put forward an exposure draft. That is the reason why we have an independent expert group that has put out a discussion paper—to make sure that those technical amendments can go through a constructive conversation. I also acknowledge that there was a genuine attempt yesterday by the opposition to try to resolve this issue. They held their joint policy committee meeting. They held what they call the opposition infrastructure rural and regional affairs committee. Senator Heffernan sat there as the chair, but the problem was the Nats did not turn up. They sat there waiting to arrive at a joint position, to have the conversation, and the Nats did not bother to turn up. It reminded me of the comment made by the member for Mallee only today in question time when he said, ‘I do not make a lot of contributions in this place.’ Unfortunately, that is a pattern.

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