Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

A toothless tiger, as Senator Ferris said. We are not putting on an act here today; we have been saying this for three years. The conflict of interest that has existed between the growers’ interests and the shareholders’ interests has been intolerable. This inquiry in Sydney has cemented that proposition in concrete. The time is up on this.

I would love someone to explain to me how it was in Australian wheat growers’ interests to have a third-party sale from the Argentine to Iraq. I think something was mentioned in the inquiry about a potential $25 kickback in the arrangement. I would love to know what business it was of the pool to get involved with the repayment of a Tigris BHP payment, for God’s sake. If people here had taken the time, they could have been there, seen and learned. I have taken down the numbers of various bank accounts, such as the Gibraltar bank account. I would love to know what money has been funnelled through that. I would love to know what went on back in the nineties with the default payment. It seemed to me there was not enough energy put into collecting that default payment. Was that part of some sleazy deal? Guess who was in government in those days. I want to know the answer to a lot of these things.

That Tigris repayment was a fraud on the pool. It was a fraud of Australian grain growers’ money. With respect to the commission paid for the repayment, there is an argument about whether it was half a million dollars or $1.3 million. Some of these clowns say, ‘I can’t remember.’ It should not have gone to the pool; it should have gone to limited. Does the bulking up of these payments with the graft inserts—if that is what the Cole inquiry finds—add to their bonuses? (Time expired)