Industry Comment - Pastoralist and Graziers Association

AWB has claimed vested interests are spreading confusion and misinformation about the operations and objectives of the AWB group, and the Grains Council of Australia has endorsed this without reservation. The claim is an outburst, apparently prompted by the Senate Rural & Regional Affairs and Transport Committee investigation taking place, and recent independent studies which have revealed any benefits to the export monopoly are being captured by the AWB. The studies have also identified unnecessary inefficiencies are being imposed on the supply chain by the AWB group to suit its own purposes. Instead of blindly endorsing the views of its paymaster the AWB, the Grains Council should be reviewing the $45 million minimum base fee that AWB Ltd collects on account of the sun coming up in the morning. It should be asking the AWB to either accept the CBH offer to save WA producers $40 million annually, or requiring the AWB to trim its impositions accordingly. The Grains Council should be asking AWB to respond to the $6 to $9 per tonne in savings identified by the Accenture and Kronos reports that are currently going begging.

The claim that the Grains Council has no conflicts is unbelievable, given that the council and its affiliates rely on AWB for funding. The Grains Council and its state affiliates ought to come clean and disclose what funding and sponsorship they accept from AWB Ltd. AWB’s vested interests are diminishing growers’ prospect, but, given the Grains Council rationalisation and political cover for AWB, it is not only the AWB group that requires urgent surgery.