Mr BEAZLEY (Leader of the Opposition) (2:37 PM) —My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade. Can the Deputy Prime Minister confirm that, in March this year, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Mr Peter McGauran, endorsed work by industry group Single Vision, which was investigating alternatives to the single desk for export wheat? Did this work include modelling by the Centre for International Economics, a known opponent of the single desk? Can the Deputy Prime Minister confirm that he only became aware of this work weeks after it commenced and just days before it was revealed in the media? Isn’t it the case that, while the Deputy Prime Minister was out in regional Australia defending the single desk, his National Party colleague was undermining him and the single desk? Deputy Prime Minister, don’t your colleagues tell you anything?

Mr VAILE (Minister for Trade) —The answer to the Leader of the Opposition’s question, at the end of it, is no. I am aware of the work that the Leader of the Opposition has been referring to. I am not aware that it was instigated or endorsed by the minister for agriculture. I understand that it had been instigated by the GRDC—the Grains Research and Development Corporation—which is an independent body. The Leader of the Opposition would be well aware of the background to that. At the moment a number of elements of research are being done into the grains industry and the future of the grains industry that we are well aware of.

As far as undermining my position, the government’s position and the single desk today is concerned, the answer to that question is no. It is not undermining the position that I have taken when speaking at public meetings and the government’s position today with regard to support of the single desk and looking after the interests of Australia’s wheat growers.