From the Australian Wheat Board to AWB Limited: collective marketing and privatisation in Australia's wheat export trade

Abstract

In 2006 in Australia there was an inquiry into allegations of kickbacks being paid to the former Iraqi regime by the grain trading company AWB Limited. The inquiry and its aftermath may come to be seen as the final step in the 34 year dismantling of a centralised wheat marketing system in Australia. This article is a review of the history of that dismantling, treated as a case study to illustrate two things. First, it highlights a general shift in agricultural policy, and the associated values, in Australian politics and second it shows how favourable ideological and institutional change, combined with legislative cycles can provide opportunities for policy advocates who have a clear and consistent policy framework in mind. It is argued in particular that the dominant paradigm for trading agricultural commodities shifted from one based on agrarian collectivism, sectoral stabilisation and 'fairness' to producers to that of a free trading system with consistency in treatment, by the state, of producers and consumers.