HE might wield enormous clout over who forms the next Government, but independent MP Tony Windsor has confirmed that reinstating the single desk for wheat marketing is not on his negotiation agenda.
The NSW Farmers' Association in particular is keen to push the issue with Mr Windsor and his fellow independent colleagues, given the position the three now find themselves in helping Labor or the Coalition to form minority Government.
Mr Windsor supported grain growers opposed to the abolition of the single desk by the Rudd Government, and in early 2008 commissioned his own poll of Australian wheat growers to prove the vast majority rejected the changes the Government had committed to.
Mr Windsor insists all marketing arrangements could be on the table once a government is formed, but it's not an issue he'll be pushing in discussions with both sides of politics in the discussions to form a government.
"I haven't actually thought that far in front," Mr Windsor told Rural Press this week.
"I'm not sure what shape of Government we'll be dealing with.
"If my vote becomes relevant there are a whole range of positive things that could be done."
Mr Windsor believes those staunch supporters of the single desk and its reinstatement were "captured" by The Nationals, who voted against its dismantling, in a political competition.
He said they were used as "pawns" in a game where he believed the Coalition had actually agreed to split on the issue.
Mr Windsor acknowledged there were many wheat growers "panicking" about the coming wheat harvest, and even those who believed in free marketing were now seeing the benefits of the old system.
NSW Farmers' Association grains committee chairman, Mark Hoskinson, said a proposal had been put to the independents and both sides of politics in the hope that whichever forms the next government could "correct the dysfunction" that was now plaguing wheat marketing.
Mr Hoskinson acknowledged it would be too hard to completely go back to the old system which was dismantled in 2008, but said there could be many significant changes made which would give growers more certainty and security in the growing and marketing of their wheat.
He said what was needed was to essentially go back to old pool arrangements but allow multiple sellers into the market.
He said a national marketer would allow people to market their own wheat if they chose to but would offer a national pool which would also ensure appropriate promotion of grain, logistics arrangements, port access and stock management.
"We need some political will to recognise wheat growing and marketing starts inside the farm gate, not outside," Mr Hoskinson said.
"Growers have been totally removed from the system.
"We weren't captured in the process. The Nationals and the independents were the only ones supporting the growers.
"The only thing we ask of the independents is that with the position they now find themselves in, particularly given their public support for the survival or rural and regional Australia, that maybe they could help support this."
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