Senate debates

Thursday, 29 November 2012

Bills

Wheat Export Marketing Amendment Bill 2012; In Committee

4:03 pm

Photo of Rachel SiewertRachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to let Senator Xenophon know that we will not be supporting these amendments. We have dealt with these issues in the correspondence with the minister, which we have tabled. This task force was specifically set up so that it could be flexible, and I think these amendments tie it down too much. We want a degree of flexibility because if other issues come up we want the body to be able to deal with them in a more flexible manner. We also are concerned about it being too heavily prescriptive about the make-up of the body. We do address those issues in the minister's agreement to the make-up of the body and what the organisation will do. That is in the correspondence, which, as I said, has been tabled. The minister has agreed to the way that the body will operate, and we have just had a discussion about that. So we will not be supporting these amendments.

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