“In light of the current market insecurity and what were perceived to be mine and others' previous naïve remonstrations about the inherent uncertainty of what would happen to Qantas if it was to be taken over by a highly leveraged private equity consortium, of which Allco was one of the major partners, it has now become apparent Allco is suffering to a greater extent the effects of the current financial turmoils.

“If we had not fought stridently to stop the private equity takeover of Qantas then you could imagine where our major carrier would be positioned right now. I am not going to quote ad nauseam from the Illuminati who derided mine and others' position but might I suggest, to cut to the chase, we were right and our largest domestic carrier is safe because of it.

“This is simply a foot note reiterating that scepticism is a very healthy attribute to have when certain financial players are postulating on a position and justifying that position on the premise that the pure market is to the benefit of the nation when, quite obviously, the greater transparency says the major beneficiaries are a much smaller group with a much narrower focus. The main economic theorem that is generally followed, after the rhetorical fog lifts, is the one called 'self interest'. In this climate, obviously, risk averse is the best financial plan for the long term future.

“Now, to another self-interested group talking about the benefits to the nation of deregulating the Single Desk: quite obviously, the only benefits are to those who will be left with a vertically integrated, regional monopoly of one of our nation’s major exports. I am prepared to go double or nothing that this one will be at the expense of wheat growers in the majority and Australia in general. Unfortunately, I and many others feel we will have less success in stopping this one than we did stoping the private equity takeover of Qantas.

"With the removal of a single desk player from the wheat export market and its replacement by a vertically integrated monopoly, from receival to port to export, the position in the market and the grower is reduced.

"There will be no comparative market power within the wheat market place to bring a greater transparency and honesty to pricing. There is no capacity under part 3(a) for easy access to infrastructure for competition. The recent battles which have been fought by Telstra to stop access by other carriers to telecommunications infrastructure should be a clear lesson about the inadequacies of the Trade Practices Act. Other participants are highly unlikely to be able to get a substantial foot hold in a market where the infrastructure is dominated by one player.

"All the new Wheat Bill will do is remove the legislation currently protecting growers from vertical integration by insisting that another player has access to a section of a market. It will also vastly reduce the bargaining capacity of most wheat growers.

"The philosophy of removing the bargaining power of the weak in favour of the strong, I thought, would be an anathema to the philosophy of the Labor Party; at least it was when they were talking about AWA's at the last election.” Senator Joyce said today.

Ends