Senator Joyce, on invitation from Kay Hull MP, Member for Riverina, travelled to Narrandera today to gauge support for the existing single desk.

Support is best summed up in one sentence. There is a unanimous resolution to support the single desk, as being operated by AWBI.

“Finally the rhetoric has started to become disengaged from the fact and growers are day by day becoming more emphatic about supporting one of Australia’s greatest marketing mechanisms and a great safety net for their income stream.”

“This is a movement among Australian wheat growers which is growing of its own volition and is not guided or orchestrated like that of the anti single desk push by particular interests.

“It was great to see Jock Laurie, Chairman of the NSW Farmers’ Association, getting the support that I, Senator Boswell and Senator Nash received for the single desk, especially at this time - in the middle of the drought and at Christmas.

The faces of over 450 farmers and supporters are not going to tolerate the nonsense currently being peddled - that the single desk, as held by the AWBI, is something that is old hat and history. They have clearly stated there has been support for this since 1939 and, unless the government has in mind a subsidy scheme similar to that received by farmers in the European Union and the United States, they have absolutely no intentions of giving it up.

“It is a fact of life, when we see such things as assistance for the Motor Vehicle Industry with its current 10% tariff and $2 Billion a year support structure, that we deal in a world where things aren’t perfect. All the wheat industry is asking is to be left with its zero cost to the Australian public form of marketing in a corrupt world wheat market.”

Senator Joyce agrees with Kay Hull, Senator Boswell and Senator Nash that it is imperative the growers maintain and increase the momentum of their support for this safety net in their livelihoods.”