Govt to cut back AWB's marketing powers December 3, 2006 - 5:19PM
Federal cabinet is set to sign off on a plan to strip AWB of its key monopoly powers, but a broader overhaul of wheat marketing is unlikely before next year.
Prime Minister John Howard is understood to be leaning towards a model pushed by West Australian Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey which would see AWB lose its prized right to veto bulk export applications by other companies.
Cabinet will consider options on Monday before taking a blueprint to the coalition joint party room on Tuesday.
Mr Howard made it clear last week that the single desk for wheat exports would be revamped in the wake of the damning findings of the Cole report on AWB's payment of $290 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Mr Tuckey, who has prepared a private member's bill that would hand AWB's veto power to the Wheat Export Authority (WEA), said he was hopeful cabinet would approve changes that give growers some certainty - at least in the short term.
"I would imagine that in protecting its own integrity the government must remove the veto rights and the other privileges extended to AWB," he told AAP.
His bill will be introduced to parliament only if West Australian Liberal MPs and others in the party pushing for change find the prime minister's package unacceptable.
Other key changes the MPs are seeking include removing AWB's exemption from the Trade Practices Act, along with the company's exemption from applying for an export licence.
The proposed changes have exposed deep divisions on the issue between the Liberals and the Nationals.
The Nationals are insisting on keeping the veto power with the single desk holder, but the Liberals favour handing the veto to the WEA and opening the system to multiple export licences.
Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Mark Vaile maintained his strong defence of the current single desk structure, but acknowledged there were "extreme points of view" in the coalition about the way forward.
The single desk had given Australian growers an edge in a world market distorted by the huge subsidies paid by the European Union and the United States, he said.
"The structure that we've had in place has served the industry very, very well," Mr Vaile told Sky News.
Mr Tuckey said if the general principles of change were agreed on this week, other details - like the restructuring of the WEA - could be worked out in the new year.
But change would still have to occur quickly, he said, with early March the deadline for most growers to decide on planting for the next season.
"The industry needs to have an absolutely clear view by then," he said.
"I think that opens the opportunity, nevertheless, in terms of the Wheat Export Authority, for there to be some consultation over Christmas with the various interest groups as to how it might function."
Removing AWB's veto power in the next week could allow WA grain handler CBH to revive its plan to ship two million tonnes of wheat to its flour mills in South-East Asia at prices around $20 a tonne better than those on offer from AWB.
The company's application for an export licence was vetoed by AWB last month.
