❓ WA Minister for Agriculture addresses the issue of unpaid debts to WA wheat farmers from pre-Gulf War Iraqi wheat sales, urging the federal government to honour past promises of compensation.
AnsweredQoN 525Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
Will the minister advise the House if he intends to push the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to retrospectively compensate Western Australian farmers for the Iraqi wheat deal that was agreed to after the previous Gulf War? Hon KIM CHANCE
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of this question. The issue of the $98 million owing to AWB Limited as a result of commercial sales to Iraq between 1987 and 1990 is still to be resolved. I note that in the media release of 2 June 2004 from Hon Mark Vaile, the federal Minister for Trade, the federal Government remains committed to seeking recovery of much of Australia’s debt through the Paris Club. In its media release of 2 June 2004, AWB Limited also continues to maintain a position of recovery of the debt. Although I support that growers should be paid in full for the sale of wheat, these particular sales were commercial transactions between AWB Limited and the Iraqi Government. However, the recent announcement by the federal Government to the effect that it will support the forgiving of the debt does, in my view, create a duty on the federal Government to ensure that those wheat growers are now paid what they have been owed since 1987 to 1991. The payment default is not related to the coalition invasion of Iraq last year, but rather to United States actions in freezing Iraqi funds after the 1990 conflict. In 1992 the Prime Minister of Australia undertook to ensure that individual Australians would not suffer from sanctions taken out against Iraq post the 1990 conflict. Wheat growers have taken some comfort from this assurance and have believed, until recently, that the federal Government would make the promised payment once the political situation in Iraq was resolved. It now seems that this is not to be the case, and recent statements by the federal Government have certainly shaken the confidence of Western Australian wheat growers. I assure Hon Paddy Embry that I will now, most certainly, be pressing the federal Government for a fair and equitable resolution to the issue that honours the earlier undertaking made by the federal Government in 1992.
Hon KIM CHANCE replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. The issue of the $98 million owing to AWB Limited as a result of commercial sales to Iraq between 1987 and 1990 is still to be resolved. I note that in the media release of 2 June 2004 from Hon Mark Vaile, the federal Minister for Trade, the federal Government remains committed to seeking recovery of much of Australia’s debt through the Paris Club. In its media release of 2 June 2004, AWB Limited also continues to maintain a position of recovery of the debt. Although I support that growers should be paid in full for the sale of wheat, these particular sales were commercial transactions between AWB Limited and the Iraqi Government. However, the recent announcement by the federal Government to the effect that it will support the forgiving of the debt does, in my view, create a duty on the federal Government to ensure that those wheat growers are now paid what they have been owed since 1987 to 1991. The payment default is not related to the coalition invasion of Iraq last year, but rather to United States actions in freezing Iraqi funds after the 1990 conflict. In 1992 the Prime Minister of Australia undertook to ensure that individual Australians would not suffer from sanctions taken out against Iraq post the 1990 conflict. Wheat growers have taken some comfort from this assurance and have believed, until recently, that the federal Government would make the promised payment once the political situation in Iraq was resolved. It now seems that this is not to be the case, and recent statements by the federal Government have certainly shaken the confidence of Western Australian wheat growers. I assure Hon Paddy Embry that I will now, most certainly, be pressing the federal Government for a fair and equitable resolution to the issue that honours the earlier undertaking made by the federal Government in 1992.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. The issue of the $98 million owing to AWB Limited as a result of commercial sales to Iraq between 1987 and 1990 is still to be resolved. I note that in the media release of 2 June 2004 from Hon Mark Vaile, the federal Minister for Trade, the federal Government remains committed to seeking recovery of much of Australia’s debt through the Paris Club. In its media release of 2 June 2004, AWB Limited also continues to maintain a position of recovery of the debt. Although I support that growers should be paid in full for the sale of wheat, these particular sales were commercial transactions between AWB Limited and the Iraqi Government. However, the recent announcement by the federal Government to the effect that it will support the forgiving of the debt does, in my view, create a duty on the federal Government to ensure that those wheat growers are now paid what they have been owed since 1987 to 1991. The payment default is not related to the coalition invasion of Iraq last year, but rather to United States actions in freezing Iraqi funds after the 1990 conflict. In 1992 the Prime Minister of Australia undertook to ensure that individual Australians would not suffer from sanctions taken out against Iraq post the 1990 conflict. Wheat growers have taken some comfort from this assurance and have believed, until recently, that the federal Government would make the promised payment once the political situation in Iraq was resolved. It now seems that this is not to be the case, and recent statements by the federal Government have certainly shaken the confidence of Western Australian wheat growers. I assure Hon Paddy Embry that I will now, most certainly, be pressing the federal Government for a fair and equitable resolution to the issue that honours the earlier undertaking made by the federal Government in 1992.
The issue of the $98 million owing to AWB Limited as a result of commercial sales to Iraq between 1987 and 1990 is still to be resolved. I note that in the media release of 2 June 2004 from Hon Mark Vaile, the federal Minister for Trade, the federal Government remains committed to seeking recovery of much of Australia’s debt through the Paris Club. In its media release of 2 June 2004, AWB Limited also continues to maintain a position of recovery of the debt. Although I support that growers should be paid in full for the sale of wheat, these particular sales were commercial transactions between AWB Limited and the Iraqi Government. However, the recent announcement by the federal Government to the effect that it will support the forgiving of the debt does, in my view, create a duty on the federal Government to ensure that those wheat growers are now paid what they have been owed since 1987 to 1991. The payment default is not related to the coalition invasion of Iraq last year, but rather to United States actions in freezing Iraqi funds after the 1990 conflict. In 1992 the Prime Minister of Australia undertook to ensure that individual Australians would not suffer from sanctions taken out against Iraq post the 1990 conflict. Wheat growers have taken some comfort from this assurance and have believed, until recently, that the federal Government would make the promised payment once the political situation in Iraq was resolved. It now seems that this is not to be the case, and recent statements by the federal Government have certainly shaken the confidence of Western Australian wheat growers. I assure Hon Paddy Embry that I will now, most certainly, be pressing the federal Government for a fair and equitable resolution to the issue that honours the earlier undertaking made by the federal Government in 1992.
Hon KIM CHANCE replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. The issue of the $98 million owing to AWB Limited as a result of commercial sales to Iraq between 1987 and 1990 is still to be resolved. I note that in the media release of 2 June 2004 from Hon Mark Vaile, the federal Minister for Trade, the federal Government remains committed to seeking recovery of much of Australia’s debt through the Paris Club. In its media release of 2 June 2004, AWB Limited also continues to maintain a position of recovery of the debt. Although I support that growers should be paid in full for the sale of wheat, these particular sales were commercial transactions between AWB Limited and the Iraqi Government. However, the recent announcement by the federal Government to the effect that it will support the forgiving of the debt does, in my view, create a duty on the federal Government to ensure that those wheat growers are now paid what they have been owed since 1987 to 1991. The payment default is not related to the coalition invasion of Iraq last year, but rather to United States actions in freezing Iraqi funds after the 1990 conflict. In 1992 the Prime Minister of Australia undertook to ensure that individual Australians would not suffer from sanctions taken out against Iraq post the 1990 conflict. Wheat growers have taken some comfort from this assurance and have believed, until recently, that the federal Government would make the promised payment once the political situation in Iraq was resolved. It now seems that this is not to be the case, and recent statements by the federal Government have certainly shaken the confidence of Western Australian wheat growers. I assure Hon Paddy Embry that I will now, most certainly, be pressing the federal Government for a fair and equitable resolution to the issue that honours the earlier undertaking made by the federal Government in 1992.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. The issue of the $98 million owing to AWB Limited as a result of commercial sales to Iraq between 1987 and 1990 is still to be resolved. I note that in the media release of 2 June 2004 from Hon Mark Vaile, the federal Minister for Trade, the federal Government remains committed to seeking recovery of much of Australia’s debt through the Paris Club. In its media release of 2 June 2004, AWB Limited also continues to maintain a position of recovery of the debt. Although I support that growers should be paid in full for the sale of wheat, these particular sales were commercial transactions between AWB Limited and the Iraqi Government. However, the recent announcement by the federal Government to the effect that it will support the forgiving of the debt does, in my view, create a duty on the federal Government to ensure that those wheat growers are now paid what they have been owed since 1987 to 1991. The payment default is not related to the coalition invasion of Iraq last year, but rather to United States actions in freezing Iraqi funds after the 1990 conflict. In 1992 the Prime Minister of Australia undertook to ensure that individual Australians would not suffer from sanctions taken out against Iraq post the 1990 conflict. Wheat growers have taken some comfort from this assurance and have believed, until recently, that the federal Government would make the promised payment once the political situation in Iraq was resolved. It now seems that this is not to be the case, and recent statements by the federal Government have certainly shaken the confidence of Western Australian wheat growers. I assure Hon Paddy Embry that I will now, most certainly, be pressing the federal Government for a fair and equitable resolution to the issue that honours the earlier undertaking made by the federal Government in 1992.
The issue of the $98 million owing to AWB Limited as a result of commercial sales to Iraq between 1987 and 1990 is still to be resolved. I note that in the media release of 2 June 2004 from Hon Mark Vaile, the federal Minister for Trade, the federal Government remains committed to seeking recovery of much of Australia’s debt through the Paris Club. In its media release of 2 June 2004, AWB Limited also continues to maintain a position of recovery of the debt. Although I support that growers should be paid in full for the sale of wheat, these particular sales were commercial transactions between AWB Limited and the Iraqi Government. However, the recent announcement by the federal Government to the effect that it will support the forgiving of the debt does, in my view, create a duty on the federal Government to ensure that those wheat growers are now paid what they have been owed since 1987 to 1991. The payment default is not related to the coalition invasion of Iraq last year, but rather to United States actions in freezing Iraqi funds after the 1990 conflict. In 1992 the Prime Minister of Australia undertook to ensure that individual Australians would not suffer from sanctions taken out against Iraq post the 1990 conflict. Wheat growers have taken some comfort from this assurance and have believed, until recently, that the federal Government would make the promised payment once the political situation in Iraq was resolved. It now seems that this is not to be the case, and recent statements by the federal Government have certainly shaken the confidence of Western Australian wheat growers. I assure Hon Paddy Embry that I will now, most certainly, be pressing the federal Government for a fair and equitable resolution to the issue that honours the earlier undertaking made by the federal Government in 1992.
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