Vaile Gets A Clear Message

The Age

Thursday February 23, 2006

ORIETTA GUERRERA, RURAL REPORTER

STANDING on the tray of a semi-trailer, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile yesterday enjoyed the warmest reception he has had in quite a while - rousing applause, and even three cheers. Hip hip hooray.

About 700 wheat farmers turned up yesterday at the Warracknabeal Showgrounds, in the heart of Victoria's wheat belt, some rising early and driving several hours to attend the rally organised by local Nationals MP John Forrest and the Victorian Farmers Federation.

Most of the farmers, like Walpeup farmer Gerald Leach, were after assurances.

"I think it's important to know that what they're doing (the Government) is responding to what the farmers are saying," he said.

From the makeshift stage, Mr Vaile took questions from the crowd, with farmer after farmer rising and lining up to quiz him. And the scorching sun wasn't the only heat he braved.

What was the Government doing in the short term to give growers stability? Would it be pressured by the Americans to abolish the single (wheat exporting) desk? Was a four-way single desk really being considered?

But Mr Vaile was swift to assure them that now was not the time to dump the single desk, and that he had told Prime Minister John Howard that any changes would have to be approved by grain growers.

Mr Vaile stressed how far he would go to protect their interests, starting with his impending mission to Iraq.

"I'll go into Baghdad, I'll go into the green zone, I may have to go into the red zone to meet those people on your behalf - not some company, not some grain grower organisation, but on behalf of the grain growers of Australia," Mr Vaile said.

"Because you're the people who put the wheat into the ground."

In turn, the farmers bludgeoned the federal Labor Opposition for stirring up trouble in the wheat scandal.

One of few women in the crowd, Warracknabeal local Margaret Dart, said her late husband Les, who was a wheat farmer for more than 50 years, would turn in his grave if he knew that thoughts of dismantling the single desk were being entertained.

"He'd be very alarmed because the Wheat Board stood by us - stood by us during the drought years, and they were always behind us," she said. "I'd hate to see it go."

But despite staunch support for the single desk, AWB is beginning to lose favour among some growers.

They said it was AWB corporate governance and management issues that should be investigated, and not the single desk.

© 2006 The Age

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