Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. Will the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Leader of the National Party guarantee Australian wheat growers that the National Party will continue to support the single desk arrangements for wheat exports?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for New England for his question. As far as the single desk arrangements are concerned, the government has continued to make very clear its commitment to the single desk while the global markets are as distorted as they are and while the single desk provides the service that is needed by Australian wheat growers. We are seeing that at the moment where there are enormous levels of export subsidies provided by the European Community and enormous levels of domestic support—I read some out in the parliament earlier this week—provided to US wheat growers, the people whom you would think were the Australian Labor Party’s best friends. So the current arrangements that are in place are there to best serve Australian wheat growers—to ensure they are as competitive as they possibly can be in the circumstances they confront in the global marketplace. The government’s policy is that we keep those arrangements in place while we are confronting those global distortions.