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

The time frame that is within section 89 of the act actually gives the Productivity Commission no discretion at all as to the timing. The question is, why is that time frame in the legislation? Why is it in section 89 in that way? When the bill was introduced in this House it did not have that tight time frame that demanded the submission period be right now. The reason it was changed was because of an amendment moved in the Senate by Senator Minchin and supported in the Senate by Senator Joyce. The only reason that time frame is in existence and the Productivity Commission has no discretion whatsoever on the timing is because of coalition amendments in the Senate that apparently, according to the shadow minister, would have been made by people ‘devoid of any basic agriculture expertise.’

While I will admit that the Liberal Party did play a constructive role generally in dealing with the wheat marketing issue, the Nats would be better off getting the parents on the sideline to say, ‘No, you are meant to be running that way.’ Instead we have got a party that is still pining for the days when wheat farmers were told who they had to sell to, still pining for the days when there was no such thing as a climate scientist and still pining for the days before Menzies when there was no such thing as the Liberal Party.

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