“I didn't think it could get any worse but it just has. In the discussion on the Proposed Bulk Wheat Export Accreditation Scheme, it has become apparent that ownership doesn’t remain with the grower in a constructive, redeemable form. When the farmer puts his farm on the line by selling, to one of the new accredited wheat exporters, his wheat, and then the bank manager says to him ‘I hope you can get the money for that or we will take your farm off you’, the farmer will have to know that he or she is in a terribly vulnerable position.

“The farmer, for all intentions, no longer owns the wheat but he or she doesn’t have the money. The new accredited wheat exporter on the other side of the transaction is relying on an access regime to an export wheat port owned by one of its competitors and a monopoly. That monopoly does not have to spell out the clear commercial terms of price and access. Since the port infrastructure holder is also a competitor to the new accredited wheat exporter they, basically, can tell the new accredited wheat exporter to 'whistle in the wind' and will meet them in court if they don’t like the price they have been offered for access.

“The new accredited wheat exporter can go broke holding wheat that is no longer owned by the farmer because they can’t export it and get paid. The farmer remains unpaid so now also goes broke and loses his farm.

“In the past, the export wheat port owner had to sell to or move another entity's grain, being AWB's, to make money. Now, they don’t. AWB only had a minor port capacity. Now the entity that owns the export wheat infrastructure can export it themselves so it’s not going to be in their interest to help competition and they will make life exceedingly difficult for those who wish to use their infrastructure in competing against them.

“This situation is completely intolerable, dangerous and unjust. So, my question is, what are we going to do about it or why are we doing this at all?"

Ends